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Avoid Language Quirks (Legal Writing)

This document provides guidance on avoiding certain writing techniques that can distract readers in legal writing. It discusses avoiding language quirks like splitting infinitives and ending sentences with prepositions unnecessarily. It also recommends avoiding "elegant variation" by using the same word repeatedly if it is the clearest option. Additionally, it advises against "noun chains" which string together multiple nouns, as well as using multiple negatives in a sentence. The document stresses using concrete language focused on people rather than abstract concepts. It also encourages using strong verbs and nouns rather than weak verbs and nouns modified by adjectives and adverbs.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
208 views33 pages

Avoid Language Quirks (Legal Writing)

This document provides guidance on avoiding certain writing techniques that can distract readers in legal writing. It discusses avoiding language quirks like splitting infinitives and ending sentences with prepositions unnecessarily. It also recommends avoiding "elegant variation" by using the same word repeatedly if it is the clearest option. Additionally, it advises against "noun chains" which string together multiple nouns, as well as using multiple negatives in a sentence. The document stresses using concrete language focused on people rather than abstract concepts. It also encourages using strong verbs and nouns rather than weak verbs and nouns modified by adjectives and adverbs.

Uploaded by

Eunice
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Avoid Language Quirks

AT T Y. D EL FIN M. S UA R EZ J R .
J MC COL L EG E OF LAW
What’s a language quirk?
Language quirks are small distractions that draw your reader’s mind
from what you are saying to how you are saying it.

Most of what lawyers write is read by people, not because they want
to, but because they have to.

Most of the readers attention is therefore prone to distractions.


Language quirks add to those distractions and thus should be avoided.
Simple examples:
• Never split an infinitive unless doing so will avoid an ambiguity or a
clumsy expression
• An infinitive is a verb that acts as other parts of speech in a sentence. It is
formed with to + base form of the verb
• Example: to buy, to work, to eat, to sue
• An infinitive is split when a modifier is inserted between the word to and the
verb, for example, “to never split”, “to outrightly dismiss”
• Readers will be easily distracted when they see an infinitive split
unnecessarily
• Do not end a sentence with a preposition unless you have to
• A preposition is a word used to link nouns, pronouns, or phrases to other words
within a sentence. Prepositions are usually short words, and they are normally
placed directly in front of nouns. In some cases, you’ll find prepositions in front of
gerund verbs.
• Examples:
• I prefer to read in the library.
• He climbed up the ladder to get into the attic.
• Go down the stairs and through the door.
• So don’t do this unless you have to:
• This is the contract the parties must enter into. > The parties must enter into this contract.
• The stipulation has been deleted since. > The stipulation has since been deleted.
• The petition is one of those cases the Court has jurisdiction over. > One of those cases the Court
has jurisdiction over is this petition.
• Flimsy are the arguments the petitioners relied on. > The arguments that petitioners relied on
are flimsy.
Avoid Elegant Variation
Avoid Elegant Variation
• Elegant variations is practiced by writers whose English teachers told
them not to use the same word twice in close proximity. Elegant
variation produces sentences like this:
• The first case was settled for P100,000, and the second piece of litigation was
disposed of out of court for P200,000, while the price of the amicable settlement
reached in the third suit was P 300,000.
• In the example, the readers are left to ponder the difference between a case, a
piece of litigation, and a suit. By the time they conclude that there is no
difference, they have no patience left for settled, disposed of out of court, and
amicable settlement, much less for what the writer was trying to tell them in the
first place.
• Elegant variation is particularly vexing in technical legal writing. The
reader of a legal document is entitled to assume that a shift in terms
is intended to signal a shift in meaning, and the reader is justifiably
puzzled.
• Example: The use fee shall be 1% of the franchisee’s gross revenue. Franchise
payment shall be made on or before the 15th day of each month.
• In the example, are franchise payments something different from the use fee? If
so, what are they, and when must the fee be paid?
• Hence, do not be afraid to repeat a word if it is the right word and if
repeating it will avoid confusion.
• But there is a different, but related language quirk, which must
likewise be avoided: using in a word in one sense and its repetition
shortly after in a different sense.
• Example: The majority opinion gives no consideration to appellant’s argument
that no consideration was given for the promise.
• In order to thwart any possible confusion, replace one of the pair with a different
term, thus:
• The majority opinion ignores appellant’s argument that no consideration was given for
the promise.
Avoid Noun Chains
Avoid Noun Chains
• A noun chain is a string of nouns, some acting as noun modifiers and
one finally serving the noun function in the sentence.
• It is a series of three or more consecutive nouns, with all but the last
functioning as a noun.
• Examples:
• Draft laboratory animal rights protection regulations
• Noun chain reader strangulation problems
• Baseball game ticket price increase proposal

• Noun chains are likely to strangle the reader. Many readers will think
they’ve hit upon the noun when they’re still reading adjectives.
• Noun chain sometimes happen when we try too hard to improve our
writing by being overly concise.
• To eliminate noun chains, remember two rules:
• The last noun in the chain is the real noun, the word referring to the thing you’re
talking about. The information conveyed by this word usually needs to be at or
near the front of the phrase, not at the end.
• Although a noun can function as an adjective, other parts of speech or
grammatical structures, do a better job of modifying a noun.
• Push the last noun toward the front, making it the first or second
word in the phrase. You then convert the following nouns into
adjectives, prepositional phrases, or other grammatical structures
designed to serve as modifiers.
• For example:
• Before: sand transfer mitigation efforts
• After: efforts to mitigate sand transfer

• Before: draft laboratory animal rights protection regulations


• After: draft regulations to protect the rights of laboratory animals
• For three-noun chains, the easiest solution is to hyphenate the first
two nouns. This punctuation informs the reader that the first two
nouns constitute a phrasal adjective modifying the following noun:
• Example:
• Before: class action suit
• After: class-action suit

• Before: cost cutting measures


• After: cost-cutting measures
• If the last noun in the chain is generic, such as process, situation,
activity, and the like, try deleting it to see whether any meaning has
been lost.
• Example:
• Before: afternoon thunderstorm activity
• After: afternoon thunderstorms

• Before: waste water treatment process


• After: waste-water treatment
• Sometimes you can find one noun meaning the same thing as a noun-
noun couplet.
• Example:
• Before: investment portfolio management company
• After: investment-portfolio manager

• Before: television antenna manufacturing facility


• After: television antenna factory

• Feel free to use one noun to modify another, but don’t chain three or
more nouns together. Strive for conciseness, but don’t sacrifice
readability for it.
Avoid Multiple Negatives
Avoid multiple negatives
• Beware of sentences that contain more than one negative expression.
• The grammar is proper, but the construction is distracting – it makes
the reader’s mind flip from yes to no to yes.
• In addition to ordinary negative words and phrases (such as not, un-,
non-), many other words operate negatively (for example, terminate,
void, denial, except, unless and other than). If you string a few of these
negative words together, you can make the reader’s eye cross, like this:
• Provided however, that this license shall not become void unless the licensee’s
failure to provide such notice is unreasonable in the circumstances.
Avoid cosmic detachment
Avoid cosmic detachment
• Every legal problem involves people. Without people, there would be
no legal problems.
• Yet legal writing too often ignores people and address itself to some
bloodless, timeless cosmic void.
• When you find yourself struggling to express a complex legal idea,
remember to ask yourself the key question: “Who is doing what to
whom?” Bring those living creatures into your writing; make them
move around and do things to each other. Suddenly abstraction will
evaporate, and your writing will come alive.
• Remember too, that your reader is the most important person in the
universe – or at least your reader thinks so. Don’t be afraid to bring
the readers into your sentences, and don’t be afraid to call them
“you”. The personal form of address will help them understand how
the passage relates to them.
Based on the Rules, it is significant to have a witness declared hostile or unwilling because when a
witness is declared by the court as hostile or unwilling, then:

a) Such witness’ credibility may be impeached by the party producing him;

b) Such witness may be impeached and cross-examined by the adverse party; and

c) Leading questions may be asked of such witness.

But note that the Rules of Court provided the abovementioned parameters in the sense that a
witness may be declared hostile only as against the party producing him. In other words, the fact of
hostility of the witness is only with reference to the party calling such witness.

The reason for this is logic. You need not have the adverse party (or his witnesses) be declared as
hostile witness (by reason of their adverse interest) since their testimony will naturally be hostile to the
you. When an adverse party calls himself or any of his witnesses to the witness stand, the other party can
always conduct his cross-examination, can always impeach his credibility and even ask of him leading
questions.
Use Strong Nouns and Verbs
Use Strong Nouns and Verbs
• In persuasive legal writing, it will be more potent if you use strong
nouns and verbs, not weak nouns and verbs held afloat by adjectives
and adverbs.
• Example:

Adjectives and Adverbs Nouns and Verbs


The witness intentionally testified The witness lied about the cargo.
untruthfully about the cargo.
Defendant’s sales agents maliciously Defendant’s sales agents preyed on
took advantage of people with little the poor and the ignorant.
money and limited intelligence.
• When you need to use a strong word for commentary, choose one that fits. Do
not use a fiery one and then douse it with water:
• Examples:
• rather catastrophic
• somewhat terrified
• a bit malevolently
• slightly hysterical

• Do not choose a flaccid one and then try to prop it up with weak words like very
and quite:
• Examples:
Weak Strong
She was very, very angry. She was enraged.
This is quite puzzling This is baffling
• The effectiveness of your argument depends on how ably you write
up each statement of your argument into a convincing part. Don’t
rely too much on adjectives.
Avoid Sexist Language
Avoid Sexist Language
• On one hand, many readers, both men and women, will be distracted
and perhaps offended if you use masculine terms to refer to people
who are not necessarily male.
• On the other hand, many readers will be distracted by clumsy efforts
to avoid masculine terms.
• In recent years, some legal writers have started using only feminine
terms, but that too is distracting.
Four suggestions to avoid sexist language:
1. Don’t use expressions that imply value judgments based on sex.
Examples:
a manly effort
a member of the gentle sex
a feministic approach
2. Use sex-neutral terms if you can do so without artificiality.
Examples:
use workers instead of workmen
use reasonable person instead of reasonable man

But don’t concoct artificial terms like waitpersons to refer to servers in a


restaurant.
3. Use parallel construction when you are referring to both sexes.
Examples:
Use husbands and wives, not men and their wives
Use President and Mrs. Obama, not President Obama and Michelle
4. Don’t use a sex-based pronoun when the referent may not be of that
sex.
For instance, don’t use he every time you refer to judges. You can resort
to the clumsy he or she in moderation, but you can often avoid the need
by using one of the following devices:
• Omit the pronoun. For example, instead of “the average citizen enjoys
his time on the jury”, you can say “the average citizen enjoys jury duty”
• Use the second person instead of the third person. For example,
instead of “each juror must think for herself”, you can say “as a juror,
you must think for yourself”
• Use the plural instead of the singular. For example, instead of “each juror believes
that he has done something worthwhile”, you can say “all jurors believe that they
have done something worthwhile”
• Repeat the noun instead of using a pronoun. For example, instead of “a juror’s
vote should reflect her own opinion”, you can say “a juror’s vote should reflect that
juror’s own opinion”
• Alternate between masculine and feminine pronouns. For example, if you use
she to refer to judges in one paragraph, use he to refer to lawyers in the next
paragraph. Be aware that this device may look artificial; further, if you are careless,
you may perform a sex change on somebody in the middle of a paragraph.
• Use the passive voice. But as we have already discussed, use this device only in
desperation.
That’s all folks!

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