I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon, I put it back again. --Oscar Wilde
That pretty much sums up my week. I spent much of it proofing several blog posts, only to change them after attending an effective writing seminar on Friday. A time-consuming endeavor, but very worthwhile.
One of the reasons I started this blog was to help improve my writing. I believe I’m an adequate writer, but my high school English classes weren’t exactly yesterday. Disco music ended about the same time as my last dance with the rules of sentence construction. I’m confident that I have forgotten more rules of grammar and punctuation than I now remember. My college and law school writing classes are also fading right along with my hair color. However, the biggest blow to my grammatical self-esteem comes from well-meaning colleagues and article editors who make “suggested” changes to my written work. These suggestions often run counter to the rules I learned—or remember. Therefore, when the opportunity arose to take an effective writing seminar, I jumped at it.
I am glad I invested the time. My thanks to Writewell partners Kate Sylvester and David Pike for presenting a valuable seminar. I learned--or relearned--a number of things, including the fact that I ain’t such a bad writer. Well, most of the time. People make judgments about authors through the words they write, whether in a letter, memo, e-mail, or article. I want to make the best impression every time.
I encourage all lawyers in practice ten or more years to invest some time to relearn these rules and concepts so ably taught by Kate and David:
1. Avoid weak verbs. These include am, are, been, have, is, was, were. Look for action in the sentence and put it in your verb. Weak example: It is the hope of the plaintiffs that the court will grant their motion. Improved: The plaintiffs hope the court will grant their motion.
2. Identify and remove empty words and phrases such as utterly ignore, truly exciting, needless to say, and over and above. These words add nothing and reduce the power of well-crafted sentences.
3. Avoid legalistic words, especially in everyday writing. Words such as pursuant to, prioritize, period of time, utilize, subsequent to, replicate, and time frame.
4. Where refers to a place, not a time or situation.
5. Since refers to a passage of time, not causality.
6. Beware of passive voice. Sure, computer grammar-checkers sometimes catch it, but how do you change it to active voice? Identify the actor and apply the action to the actor. Passive example: It was agreed by the parties to seek a joint continuance. Active: The parties agreed to seek a continuance.
7. Avoid nouns ending in –tion, -ance, -ence, or -ment. Whenever you have a noun expressing an action, change it to a verb. Verbs move a reader. Change “A declaration by the court” to “ the court declared.”
8. Eliminate prepositional phrases that slow down the reader. Examples include:
“During the course of” instead of “during”
“In view of the fact” instead of “because”
“In the amount of” instead of “for”
9. Commas still have a place in well-written sentences, despite the trend to use fewer of them. The rules haven’t changed; however, shorter sentences encourage clarity and need fewer commas. Here is a quick review of comma usage.
10. Always write a great lead. Pick the most important element and grab the reader’s attention in the first sentence or paragraphs. If not, the intended reader will be bored and won't read to the end.
I guess I wrote a good lead. Thanks for reading.
