Garner on Language and Writing

Bryan A. Garner

American Bar Association, 2009 - Law - 839 pages

Since the 1987 appearance of A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage, Bryan A. Garner has proved to be a versatile and prolific writer on legal-linguistic subjects. This collection of his essays shows both profound scholarship and sharp wit. The essays cover subjects as wide-ranging as learning to write, style, persuasion, contractual and legislative drafting, grammar, lexicography, writing in law school, writing in law practice, judicial writing, and all the literature relating to these diverse subjects.

Contents

• Learning to Write: 1
• From Mush to Masterpiece: 6
• The Stuttering Writer: 10
• The Importance of Attentive Reading: 13
• Telling the Good from the Bad: 16
• Finding Good Models of Writing: 19
• The Third and Fourth Levels of Competence: 22
• The Benefits of Keeping a Daily Journal: 25
• Why You Should Start a Writing Group: 29
• Style: 35
• On Legal Style: 45
• In Praise of Simplicity: 47
• Putting the Action in Your Verbs and Your Verbs in Active Voice: 49
• Colloquiality in Law: 53
• Judges on Effective Writing: 55
• On Conjunctions as SentenceStarters: 61
• Genteelisms Officialese and Commercialese: 86
• The Aesthetics of Your Pages: 96
• Persuasive Writing: 103
• The Three Parts of a Brief: 106
• The Upshot of It All: 112
• A New Approach to Framing Legal Questions: 118
• The Language of Appellate Advocacy: 147
• Grasping Your Nettles: 156
• Debriefing Your Briefs: 159
• Legal Drafting: 165
• Legislative Drafting: 167
• Handling Words of Authority: 172
• Purging the Dirty Dozen: 178
• The Abstemious Definer: 183
• The Drafters Machete for Slashing Through Density: 188
• James Fitzjames Stephen as Drafter and Lexicographer: 193
• English Grammar and Usage: 209
• The Word on the Street: 213
• Testing Your Command of Grammar and Usage: 215
• Our Blundering Law Reviews: 220
• Gauging Your Editing Skills: 225
• BooBoos in Our Law Reviews: 230
• Words Words Wordsand Race: 234
• Transcending Dialect: 237
• Nonsexist Language and Credibility: 241
• WordKarma: 243
• Preface to A Dictionary of Modern American Usage: 244
• A Texan Fowler? Answering the Critics of Modern American Usage: 253
• Making Peace in the Language Wars: 264
• Legal Language: 287
• Plain Language: 291
• Legalese: 300
• Reworking Your Vocabulary: 302
• Steeling Yourself Against Legalese: 306
• Terms of Art: 309
• Doublets Triplets and SynonymStrings: 311
• A Grammatical Grotesquerie in Texas Practice: 316
• Going Hence Without Day: 318
• The Lawyers imply: 321
• Novelties in Lawyer Talk: 325
• Legal Lexicography: 333
• The Missing CommonLaw Words: 338
• Preface to the First Pocket Edition of Blacks Law Dictionary: 349
• Preface to the Seventh Edition of Black s Law Dictionary: 352
• Preface to A Handbook of Family Law Terms: 360
• Preface to Rastells Exposition of Certain Difficult and Obscure Wordes 1579: 363
• Introduction to Cunninghams New and Complete LawDictionary 3d ed 1783: 365
• Introduction to Burns New Law Dictionary 1792: 370
• Introduction to Williamss Law Dictionary 1816: 371
• Introduction to Bouviers Law Dictionary 1857: 373
• Writing in Law School: 377
• Taking a Lesson from Tiger Woods: 380
• How Serious Is Your School About Writing?: 383
• Why Students Should Support LRW Classes: 387
• The Art of Briefing Cases: 390
• Writing in Practice: 397
• Why IRAC Is Good for Exams but Bad in Practice: 400
• Ten Tips for Writing at Your Law Firm: 403
• Demand Letters That Get Results: 407
• The Importance of Other Eyes: 413
• Planning an InHouse Writing Workshop?: 416
• Judicial Writing: 425
• The Style of US Supreme Court Opinions: 437
• Clearing the Cobwebs from Judicial Opinions: 446
• Citations: 469
• The Citational Footnote: 473
• The Great Style Debate: 482
• The Maroonbook Blues: 485
• Bizarreries: 491
• On Pun Control: 495
• Cruel and Unusual English: 497
• More on Peccant Punning: 502
• Lapsus Memoriae: 504
• Testamentary Depositions and Other Curiosities: 507
• Insane Committees: 509
• Alliteritis: 510
• Sesquipedality: 511
• Smelling of the Inkhorn: 517
• One Bite: 523
• Pronunciations Scofflaws: 524
• An Epistolary Essay: 527
• Tributes and Autobiographical Essays: 541
• The Legend and the Man: 561
• Remembering Judge Thomas Gibbs Gee: 564
• Sir Robert Megarry RIP: 570
• Finding the Right Words: 572
• How I Stumbled on a Literary Treasure: 576
• Interviews: 585
• From The Record: 591
• From Copy Editor: 597
• Book Recommendations: 607
• Sources for Answering Questions of Grammar and Usage: 611
• Is Law a Literary Profession?: 616
• Book Reviews: 621
• Harmless Drudgery?: 625
• Not Your Fathers Fowler: 631
• Dont Know Much About Punctuation: 635
• Conjugational Infidelity: 646
• Dialect of the Web Tribe: 649
• Chronicles of Grammar Usage and Writing: 655
• 2005: 662
• 2006: 672
• 2007: 686
• The Last Word: 703
• Recommended Sources on Language and Writing: 707
• Table of Cases Cited: 747
• Index: 755

Bibliographic information

• Title: Garner on Language and Writing
• Author: Bryan A. Garner
• Publisher: American Bar Association, 2009
• ISBN: 1604424451, 9781604424454
• Length: 839 pages
• Subjects: Law / Dictionaries & Terminology; Law / General; Law / Legal Writing; Reference / Writing Skills