Look Inside

Why study writing – again?

No matter what academic and life experiences you’ve already had, you will immediately realize that legal writing is different. Writing for legal audiences is a skill, and, like any new skill, it has to be practiced.

Yes, it’s still writing, but it is a branch of technical writing with its own set of rules and priorities. Although you learned to write in grade school, composed essays and organized reports in high school, and perhaps created analytic discussions in college or on the job, there’s more! Each of those writing stages helped you reach the next stage – and then the next stage.

Now you’ve reached a narrowed branch within a very specific field of technical writing. It is nothing like the writing you have done before, and yet requires the application of all of the skills you’ve learned. Once you’ve learned how to employ the skills you’ve already learned, you will unlock an entirely new world of communication.

The book is meant to be a purely practical guide to the expectations of writing like a lawyer. The book is divided into six parts that can help you break down the task of editing your drafts into credible final products. First review the basic rules of professional writing by trying the two exercises in Chapter 1. Once you’re assured that you remember the rules required for professional writing, then use the remainder of this book to help hone your writing skills.