Advanced Legal Writing: Communicate Effectively with Plain Language (On-Demand)

Course Description

Learn to communicate and advocate more effectively at this advanced legal writing program. You will learn principles of plain language writing and document design that you need to prepare persuasive, concise, and well supported legal briefs and memoranda.

Principles

• Make your writing clear, concise, and persuasive
• Strengthen your legal briefs and memoranda
• Improve your advocacy

Syllabus

1. Plain Language: what, why, and how
2. Concision: Eliminating clutter from your sentences
   • Eliminate empty phrases
   • Avoid nominalizations
   • Simplify words
3. Clarity: Easing the burden on your audience
   • Favor subject-verb-object construction
   • Avoid passive voice – unless…
   • Prefer concrete subjects
   • Choose words precisely
   • Shorten sentences
4. Document design
   • Importance of typography
   • Typeface
   • Justification
   • White space
   • Punctuation
5. Advanced strategies in organization and editing
   • Good legal writing is engaging and elegant
   • Importance of clear organization
   • Advanced strategies in editing
6. Language change
   • Pronoun use
   • Writing clearly with inclusive language
7. Is writing well worth the effort?