CHAPTER 11: WRITING CLEARLY

Clarity is one of the primary criteria for good writing Headings

 When the paper is long and abound in variety of topics, it would help
to use headings.
Right Connectives  Two Kinds of Headings
 Coupling mechanisms to tie your ideas together o General – provide some kind of signposts that point out to
 Connectives or transitory devices the reader the grounds he is about to cover in his reading.
 Examples: “Statement of the Facts”, “Issues Presented”, “Conclusion”
o And; Besides; Furthermore; First; Then; Finally; Nearby; o Specific – like newspaper headlines, they attempt to capture
Below; However; On the other hand; In fact; In other words; in a few words the essence of a particular discussion.
For instance; Therefore; To sum up; Consequently Subheadings are not punctuated with a period and are
 Connectives also serve as tools for developing logical reasoning. You always in the present tense. “Statements of remorse made
are able to test the relation between ideas by trying one connective by the representatives of the Japanese government”
in place of another
 WORD BRIDGES You can join two sentences by putting into the
second sentence a word that points a word you used in the first.
Example:
o If the purpose of reorganization is to be achieved, changes in
the rankings of the employees should be expected. For one
to insist having his old rank would render the exercise
useless.

Abstracts vs. Concrete Reasoning

 An abstraction is any word that applies to a large class of things
rather than to any single, concrete object or idea. Excessive use of
abstract words may result to vagueness, even meaninglessness.
o Justice, equality, executory, commenced, grave abuse of
discretion
 Concrete words are words that stand for real things, things that
appeal in one way or another to the senses
o Structure – House – Shed – A dilapidated little shack with
makeshift walls and a cardboard roof

Substitute Names
 Identifying parties based on their positions in the case often results
in confusion (“complainant”, “defendant”, “petitioner”)
 It is better to use their names (thereafter the shortcut of their
names) throughout your discussion especially when the case reaches
a higher court and the parties begin to assume cumbersome and
confusing descriptions

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 CHAPTER 12: WRITING LEGALESE o Posits - assumes
o Was in possession - had
Law is a device for social control. Since effective obedience to laws o Commenced - filed
requires an understanding of them, laws should be written in plain and o Contentions - claims
ordinary English or Filipino that the average layman could understand o Stated – said
o Implemented – carried out
Legal Clichés o Manner – way
 To non-lawyers, legal clichés sound so unnatural and pretentious, if
 As a rule, the easier word is the better choice if it means exactly the
not arrogant.
same thing
o Petitioner respectfully submits
o Even a cursory perusal of Section 21 will readily reveal Cheap Words
o Lest it be forgotten, the law is supreme  Examples: good, nice, pretty, ugly, bad, awful, big, little, fast, slow,
o We humbly submit that the answer to the foregoing query is funny, crazy, great, fine
a resounding no  Look for a more precise meaning in the thesaurus
o Suffice it to state o Crazy – mad, lunatic, bereft of reason, irrational
o The argument is untenable  Do not dwell in the slum of cheap language
o The argument is bereft of merit
 Legal clichés get in the way and do not add to the meaning of the Self-praise
main message of the sentence  Don’t include remarks about how diligently you have worked on your
cases. They sound like self-praise and they divert attention from the
Old English main message of the sentence
 In the case at bar o In our considered opinion
 In the instant case o A careful scrutiny
 The parties in the case at bench have agreed to arbitration o After thoroughly going over the records
 To wit:
 Thereat, hereto, aforesaid, thereby, thereof, therewith, forthwith, Sentence-length Variety
herein, therefrom  Your inner ear is tuned to verbal sentences of various lengths
 Writing is a form of talk – preserved talk. You strain the inner ear
Sounding Formal when you write sentences at more or less uniform lengths. It is
 Standard for all effective writing is being understood unnatural.
 Some lawyers insist on using POLYSYLLABIC words like accompanied  CAPTURE IN WRITING THE BASIC RHYTM OF SPEECH. Vary your
instead of “went with”; informed instead of “told” sentence length.
 They sound like stuffed shirt