Assignment

1. Principles of Effective Legal Writing

2. Stages of Legal Writing
3. Basics of grammar rules

Principles of Effective Writing

1. Purpose: The writing should accomplish something. That purpose, along with
your knowledge of the audience, should determine the form, style, and tone of the
writing. Formulate a clear claim or thesis statement that predicts your
presentation, and locate it prominently.
2. Elaboration: Help the audience see your point: map out the reasoning behind
the conclusion. Satisfy your audience's need for unity and coherence by building
paragraphs that support topic sentences with details; use examples and
references to sources as evidence to illustrate your points. Craft sentences to
embody thought structures, logical relationships, and clear connections.
3. Power/Emphasis: Understand the audience's need for prediction and
fulfillment, unity, and coherence. Carefully use emphatic positions for powerful
paragraphs and sentences. As a general rule, place the familiar at the beginning,
and the new, and more complicated at the end.
4. Economy: Your audience is usually pressed for time, so address their need for
economy. Use fewer words in more effective sentences and phrases.
5. Clarity: You will usually get your message across to your audience best if you
make your main “characters” (agents) the subjects and the important actions the
verbs of your sentences. Choose well-suited and precise words.

Stages of Legal Writing

1. Pre-work- the step when the legal professional must gather the data or
details of the case (ex. Dates, testimonies from witnesses)
 1. Process of Pre-work

Dispute- establish where the legal dispute lied in the case.

Facts- discovering the relevant facts.

Law- know the law or rules applying to it.

Issue- Identify the issue that you would address.

Argument- roughing out the arguments that you would see.

2. Write-up
- writing the legal aspects in an organized and convincing manner as a draft or
paper. What completes this stage is the editing and rewriting

References:
http://writingcenter.uh.edu/partnerships/five-principles-for-effective-legal-writing
https://jdandalecio.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/reviewer-legwri.pdf