Writing That Works
A Reading List for the (Legal) Writer: Part 2
In my last column, I recommended five books on writing that have been important to my development as a writer. Although those books are not about legal writing specifically, they contain time-tested principles and strategies of effective writing that apply across many genres, and over the years I’ve provided excerpts from all of them to my legal writing students.
In this column, I recommend five books on legal writing that occupy prominent places on my bookshelves. These books help me continue to hone my craft, and I find myself returning to them frequently as I look for practical advice to share with my students to help them elevate their legal writing skills.
1. Plain English for Lawyers by Richard C. Wydick and Amy E. Sloan. [1]
Now in its seventh edition, Plain English for Lawyers has stood the test of time for more than forty years. The late Professor Wydick, who authored the first five editions, described the book as “a concise, practical guide to clear legal writing . . . [useful] as an instructional text, writing supplement, or resource for self-directed efforts to improve [one’s] writing.”
Professor Wydick’s central premise is that “good legal writing should not differ, without good reason, from ordinary well-written English.” To this end, the short chapters in Plain English for Lawyers cover topics such as omitting surplus words, preferring the active voice, using short sentences, choosing and arranging words with care, avoiding language quirks, and punctuating carefully. Professor Sloan’s updates to Wydick’s text include a chapter on effective document design and a number of small but helpful organizational and structural changes that make the content more accessible. Each chapter concludes with exercises designed to reinforce the concepts covered in the chapter.
2. Lifting the Fog of Legalese: Essays on Plain Language by Joseph Kimble.[2]
Professor Kimble is a leading figure in the Plain English movement that has gained momentum in the legal profession in recent years. This book, published in 2006, is a compilation of essays Professor Kimble wrote for various publications, including the Michigan Bar Journal’s “Plain Language” column,[3] which he has authored since 1988.
In Part one of Lifting the Fog of Legalese, Professor Kimble summarizes the arguments and evidence for moving away from the “archaic, inflated” vocabulary that he calls “legalese”—“a form of prose so jumbled, dense, verbose, and overloaded that it confuses and frustrates most everyday readers and even many lawyers.” In Part Two, he offers his advice for incorporating the elements of plain language into legal documents and provides examples of many different kinds of legal documents (judicial opinions, court rules, jury instructions, statutes, and more) that do it effectively.
One of my favorite chapters is Professor Kimble’s “Modest Wish List for Legal Writing.” The last item on the list is “Banish Prior To,” a phrase that he says “takes the booby prize for the most common inflated phrase in legal and official writing. “Try to think of a single literary title that uses prior to. ‘Twas the Night Prior to Christmas’? ‘The land was ours prior to ours having been the land’s’? ‘And miles to go prior to my sleeping’?”
Lifting the Fog of Legalese is a fun and easy-to-read collection of Professor Kimble’s best work, and I come back to it often to find helpful nuggets of legal writing wisdom to pass on to my students.
3. Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges by Antonin Scalia and Bryan Garner.[4]
This book, published in 2008, has helped me develop teaching materials for my appellate advocacy class and my judicial writing class, and I think practitioners who routinely write briefs would find its principles and insights valuable (even those who may not be fans of Justice Scalia’s jurisprudence).
The book jacket proclaims that Justice Scalia and Garner address the “perennial question” of how effective advocates persuade courts to decide cases in their favor “with a detailed answer adapted to the modern era.” The book contains 115 short sections that cover general principles of persuasion, legal reasoning, brief-writing, and oral argument, each “leavened with the authors’ trenchant wit and lucid prose style.” Punctuating these sections are quotes from well-known lawyers and jurists throughout history.
One interesting aspect of the book is the back-and-forth between Justice Scalia and Garner, who agree on most of the principles of effective legal writing but have different takes on some of them. Garner considers contractions appropriate in legal writing if used sparingly, while Justice Scalia believes contractions are likely to be perceived by some jurists as an affront to the dignity of the court. Garner advocates putting citations in footnotes to improve readability, while Justice Scalia disapproves of this suggestion: “You cannot make your product more readable to the careful lawyer by putting the entire citation material in a footnote . . . , because the careful lawyer wants to know, while reading along, what the authority is for what you say.”
4. Point Made: How to Write Like the Nation’s Top Advocates by Ross Guberman.[5]
Guberman, the well-known legal writing consultant and creator of BriefCatch, describes Point Made as
the first book to use an empirical approach to help lawyers write like the nation’s best advocates. Rather than repeat familiar generalities such as “outline your argument” or “be concise,” the book dissects the writing of the most influential advocates alive, including John Roberts, David Boies, Ted Olson, Maureen Mahoney, and dozens more. By breaking the way these lawyers write into concrete techniques, the book gives you 50 ways to make your own writing stand out.
For each technique, you’ll get practical tips and many model examples. The techniques offer solutions to all major writing challenges, from how to craft a compelling opening to how to make dense material come alive. The examples span from Harry Potter to Hollywood, from drinking ages to the Duke Lacrosse case, from press freedoms to students’ rights, and from police misconduct to presidential candidates.
One Amazon reviewer, an attorney, called Point Made
one of the most influential legal writing books I have read over the course of my entire legal career. . . . It’s so helpful that, after reading the first edition, I started asking junior associate candidates interviewing at my last firm if they had read it—as a litmus test of sorts for how serious they were about the craft of writing. And every associate I’ve supervised since has had this book on their list of required reading for working with me.[6]
If you enjoy Point Made, you should also check out Guberman’s companion book, Point Taken: How to Write Like the World’s Best Judges.[7]
5. Aspen Handbook for Legal Writers: A Practical Reference by Deborah E. Bouchoux.[8]
If you read my columns regularly, you won’t be surprised to see this book included on my list of excellent books about legal writing. It’s become an indispensable tool in my work as a legal writer and a professor; I use it so frequently that I have a copy at work and a copy at home, so I’m never caught without it!
The Aspen Handbook isn’t the kind of book you curl up with and read from cover to cover; it’s a comprehensive reference manual that covers the mechanics of good legal writing (grammar, punctuation, and spelling); features of effective legal writing (accuracy, clarity, readability, and conciseness); and organization and the writing process. It also covers the conventions of formatting and style for legal correspondence (letters, emails, and texts); legal memoranda; legal briefs; and pleadings and transactional documents. And it offers strategies for editing and proofreading and for effective document design.
Bouchoux’s manual is filled with clear examples, helpful charts (I particularly like the “Quick Reference: Comma Karma” chart and the “Common Transition Words and Phrases” chart), Tip Boxes, and StyleLinks (links to websites that offer additional resources for each chapter’s topic).
I would love to hear from readers what books or other resources have been helpful to you in your legal writing efforts. I’m always looking for new inspiration!
Laura Graham serves as Professor of Legal Writing and Director of Legal Analysis, Writing, and Research at Wake Forest University School of Law, where she has been teaching since 1999. She was the first recipient of the law school’s Graham Award for Excellence in Teaching Legal Research and Writing, which is named in her honor, and currently serves as immediate past president of the Association of Legal Writing Directors. Graham is a graduate of Wake Forest University and Wake Forest University School of Law.
[1] Richard C. Wydick & Amy E. Sloan, Plain English for Lawyers (7th ed. 2024).
[2] Joseph Kimble, Lifting the Fog of Legalese: Essays on Plain Language (2006).
[3] You can find links to Professor Kimble’s columns here: https://www.michbar.org/generalinfo/plainenglish/home.
[4] Antonin Scalia & Bryan A. Garner, Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges (2008).
[5] Ross Guberman, Point Made: How to Write Like the Nation’s Top Advocates (2d ed. 2014).
[6] https://www.amazon.com/Point-Made-Write-Nations-Advocates/dp/0199943850.
[7] Ross Guberman, Point Taken: How to Write Like the World’s Best Judges (2015).
[8] Deborah E. Bouchoux, Aspen Handbook for Legal Writers: A Practical Reference (5th ed. 2021).