comm skills general

1. The PlainEnglishmovement
By Judge Mark P. Painter
In the previous50 columns(whichoriginallyraninOhioLawyersWeekly),Ihave preachedthe gospel of
PlainEnglish.WhatexactlyisPlainEnglish,andhow doesittranslate tolegal writing?Thiswill be new to
newreaders,arecap for some.
The Plain Englishmovementissimplythis:writeinthe mostreadable mannerforyouraudience to
understand.Thatdoesn’tsounddifficult,butaslawyers,we have fallenintobadhabits,manyof which
are hard to break.Atminimum,though,youcanimprove yourwritingbymakingsome elementary
changes:
Shortersentence length.Sentence lengthisthe firstmajorelementof readability.Sentencesshould
average nomore than18 words,and nevergoover35. One exceptiontothe 35-wordlimit:lists.
Fewerpassive sentences.Activevoice isanotherelementof readability.We talkinthe active voice.
Sometimespassive isunavoidable,butusuallynot.Write the courtreversedthe judgment,ratherthan
the judgmentwasreversed.
Fewerverbsturnedintonouns.Questionwordsendingin -tionor-ment.Some simplycoverup
perfectlygoodverbs.Howabout“SmithCompanydetermined,ratherthan“made a determination?”
“The planimprovedthe roadway,”ratherthan“resultedinanimprovement?”Oryou“movedfor
summaryjudgment,”not“filedamotion?”Puttingnominalizationsbackintoverbsgreatlyimproves
your writing,savingnotonlywords,butalsoawkwardconstructions.
Shorterparagraphs.We tendto run onand on. There isno specificrule,butdon’tevergomore thana
half page – the readerhas to see whenit’ssafe totake a break.
More headings.Headingsare signpostsforthe reader.Andwe shoulduse themforthe same reasonas
writingshortersentencesandshorterparagraphs,withthe additionalbenefitof imparting information.
Insteadof Facts or Argumentwrite The Fire andthe AftermathorNo Miranda Violation.

2. Easilyreadable typefaces.StopusingTimesNew Roman.Itwasdesignedfornewsprint,where the ink
expands.Butourlaserprintersprintthe periodsandcommastoo small.Neveruse Courier –it’sthe
mostunreadable typeface.Use GeorgiaorPalatino – those are the bestthat everyone hasontheirPC.
Use Arial or Verdanaforheadings,butnottext.
One word,not three.The goofycouplets,null andvoid,fitandproper,will andtestament,sell and
convey,due andpayable,haven’tbeennecessaryforalmostathousandyears,butwe forgot to change.
Purge lawspeak.Hereinafter,Aforesaid,Thereinafter,Whereas,andthe like are banned,unlessyouare
tryingto be funny.Andkill the parenthetical numericals,asinone (1).Theycan onlygetyouin trouble.
If the numbersandlettersconflict,the wordscontrol –butthe numbersare more likelytobe right!
These are justa fewquickwaysto make yourwriting better.Youcan finda more in-depthdiscussionof
all the above,plusmore,inThe Legal Writer:40 Rulesforthe Art of Legal Writing.
Readability
I alwaysshowthe readabilityscoresforthe column.Statisticsforthiscolumn(exceptingthe quotes, of
course,whichare unintelligible):11 wordspersentence,3percentpassive voice,andgrade level8.8.