Preface Introduction Part One: Principles for All Legal Writing 1. Framing Your Thoughts      § 1. Have something to say, and think it through. Approach your task with a fervent desire to get your message across.      § 2. Carry out your writing projects in four steps: think and research; plan and organize; write; revise.      § 3. Order your material in a logical sequence. Present facts chronologically. For other material, make the order (a) deductive, (b) comparative, or (c) spatial. Keep related material together.      § 4. Use informative headings to mark sections and, if helpful, subsections. 2. Phrasing Your Sentences      § 5. Exclude unnecessary words.      § 6. Keep your average sentence length to about 20 words.      § 7. Keep the subject, the verb, and the object together—toward the beginning of the sentence.      § 8. Use parallel phrasing for parallel ideas: don’t pair unlike grammatical forms.      § 9. Use strong, precise verbs. Minimize is, are, was, and were—especially when they are part of a passive-voice construction.      § 10. Avoid multiple negatives.      § 11. End sentences emphatically. 3. Choosing Your Words      § 12. Use plain English, not legalese.      § 13. Be wary of pretension, officialese, and stiff formulas.      § 14. Simplify wordy phrases—especially those containing of.      § 15. Avoid zombie nouns—especially -ion words that you can turn into verbs.      § 16. Avoid doublets and triplets.      § 17. Refer to people and companies by name. Never use corresponding terms ending in -or and -ee.      § 18. Use shorthand names only when you must. Shun unfamiliar acronyms.      § 19. Make it snappy, vivid, and interesting.      § 20. Be a companionable voice of reason. Make everything you write speakable. Part Two: Principles Mainly for Analytical and Persuasive Writing      § 21. Plan all three parts: the beginning, the middle, and the end.      § 22. For the all-important opener, use the deep issue to state the problem clearly.      § 23. Summarize concretely and effectively. But don’t overparticularize with dates and similar unimportant details.      § 24. Make your paragraphs cohesive. Introduce each one with a topic sentence.      § 25. Link your paragraphs explicitly.      § 26. Vary the length of your paragraphs, but keep them generally short.      § 27. Provide textual signposts along the way.      § 28. Unclutter the text by footnoting citations. Keep the footnotes free of sentences.      § 29. Weave quotations deftly into your prose. “Quotation sandwiches” are hard to skip.      § 30. Be forthright in dealing with counterarguments. Part Three: Principles Mainly for Legal Drafting      § 31. Draft for an ordinary reader, not for a mythical judge who might someday review the document.      § 32. Organize provisions in descending order of importance. Use a good numbering system and abundant headings to make things easy to find.      § 33. Minimize definitions and cross-references. If you have more than a few definitions, put them in a schedule at the end, not at the beginning.      § 34. Break down enumerations into parallel provisions. Put every list of subparts at the end of the sentence—never at the beginning or in the middle.      § 35. Replace every shall.      § 36. Don’t use provisos.      § 37. Replace and/or wherever it appears.      § 38. Prefer the singular over the plural.      § 39. Use numerals, not words, to denote amounts. Avoid word–numeral doublets.      § 40. If you don’t understand a form provision—or why it should be included in your document—try diligently to gain that understanding. If you still can’t understand it, cut it. Part Four: Principles for Document Design      § 41. Make sensible choices about typography: use a readable font and type size, don’t underline, minimize all-caps and initial caps, and put one space between sentences.      § 42. Create ample white space—and use it meaningfully.      § 43. Highlight ideas with attention-getters such as bullets.      § 44. Use graphics whenever they can enhance your message.      § 45. For a long document, make a table of contents. Part Five: Methods for Continued Improvement      § 46. Embrace constructive criticism.      § 47. Edit your work rigorously and systematically.      § 48. Seek out reliable answers to questions of grammar and usage.      § 49. Habitually gauge your own readerly likes and dislikes, as well as those of other readers.      § 50. Remember that good writing makes the reader’s job easy; bad writing makes it hard. Appendix A: A Restatement of Punctuation Appendix B: Four Model Documents      1. Research Memos      2. Motions      3. Appellate Briefs      4. Contracts Key to Basic Exercises Bibliography Index