Style of Legal Writing-II

English II
 What to avoid???

Ambiguity Sexist language

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Ambiguity
• occurs when writing can be interpreted to mean more than one thing, and these
things are in conflict with each other.
• –especially in contract drafting – it can be disastrous.
• Meaning of English sentences can in many cases be changed completely by altering
the order of words or the punctuation.

My client has discussed your proposal to fill the drainage ditch with his partners.
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The judge, said the accused, was the most heinous villain he had ever met.
My client has discussed with his partners your proposal to fill the drainage
ditch.

The judge said the accused was the most heinous villain he had ever met.

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SEXIST LANGUAGE
• Personal pronouns:
• inappropriate to use the personal pronouns he or his to refer to a person whose sex
might be male or female
• gender-neutral words such as person
• gender-neutral pronouns such as anyone, everyone and no one
• English does not have gender-neutral singular personal pronouns
• use the plural possessive form, their

• E.g. Every competent lawyer must ensure that their legal knowledge is kept up to 5
date.
Other methods to avoid using he or his:
• Deleting the pronoun reference altogether if possible.
• E.g. The director read the documents as soon as they were delivered to him. (delete to
him)

• Changing the pronoun to an article like a or the.

• E.g. The sales representative assisted the customer with his order.
• The sales representative assisted the customer with the order.

• Using who, especially when he follows if.

• E.g. If he does not pay attention to detail, a finance officer is worse than useless.

• A finance officer who does not pay attention to detail is worse than useless.

• Repeating the noun instead of using a pronoun. 6

• E.g. When considering the conduct of negotiations, the delegate should retain an objective
view. In particular, he [read the delegate] should . . .
• Use the plural form of the noun.
• E.g. A lawyer must check that he has all the relevant papers before attending court.
• Lawyers must check that they have all the relevant papers before attending court.

• Use the infinitive form of the verb, including ‘to’ (e.g. ‘to perform’, ‘to draft’ etc.).
• E.g. The lawyer agrees that he will draft the contract.
• The lawyer agrees to draft the contract.

• If all else fails,

• E.g. He must deliver the files to X.
• The files must be delivered to X.

However, note that this is not a perfect solution, since the passive form makes it
unclear who is responsible for delivering the files to X. Therefore, it should only be 7
used if the identity of the parties has already been established in a previous sentence, or if
the question of who is responsible for undertaking the actions is unimportant.
Terminology:
• ensure as far as possible that the terminology used is not gender-specific.
• E.g. you should consider using chair instead of chairman, firefighter instead of fireman,
and drafter instead of draftsman.

• However, there is a limit to the extent to which we can manipulate the English
language to remove all possible traces of gender discrimination.
• Problem arises in respect of words for which the only gender-neutral equivalent
involves the use of -person or person-.
• E.g. Words such as personpower, warehouseperson and foreperson (instead of foreman)
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should be avoided where possible.
Old-fashioned term Nonsexist equivalent
• Air hostess/stewardess Flight attendant
• Anchorman Anchor
• Businessman Business executive, manager, entrepreneur
• Cameraman Camera person, photographer
• Chairman Chair
• Craftsman Artisan
• Deliveryman Courier, messenger
• Draftsman Drafter
• Fireman Firefighter
• Foreman (in the workplace) Supervisor
• Foreman (of a jury) Presiding juror
• Freshman Fresher, first-year student
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• Headmaster Head, principal
Old-fashioned term Nonsexist equivalent
• Juryman Juror
• Mankind Humankind/humanity
• Man-made Synthetic, manufactured
• Manpower Workforce, personnel
• Ombudsman Ombuds
• Policeman/policewoman Police Officer
• Postman/mailman Postal worker, mail carrier
• Salesman Sales representative
• Spokesman spokesperson, Representative
• Statesman Political leader
• Statesmanship Diplomacy
• The common man The average person
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• Warehouseman Warehouser
• Workman Worker
FALSE WORD PAIRS
• Many words in English look and sound alike but can have very different meanings.
• E.g. principal and principle
• affect and effect
• disinterested and uninterested
• prescribe and proscribe

PROBLEM WORD: “ONLY”

Only he loves me.
He only loves me.
He loves only me.
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• Only qualified lawyers are able to draft these documents.
-(‘nothing or no one else
but’)

• He turned, only to find his path was blocked.

-(‘with the negative result
that’)

• It was only on Thursday that the document arrived.

-(‘no longer ago
than’ )

• We can finalise the contract only when the document arrives. 12

-(‘not until’)
Fewer or less?
• Fewer should be used with plural nouns
• ‘eat fewer cakes’
• ‘there are fewer people here today’.

• Less should be used with nouns referring to things that cannot be counted.
• ‘there is less blossom on this tree’

• It is wrong to use less with a plural noun.

E.g. ‘less people’, ‘less cakes’

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Can or may?
• Can is mainly used to mean ‘to be able to’

• E.g. ‘Can he move?’

• which means, is he physically able to move?

• May is used when asking to be allowed to do something.

• E.g. ‘may we leave now?

• ‘can’ is thought to be less correct or less polite in such cases.
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Imply or infer?
• They can describe the same situation, but from different points of view.
• If a speaker or writer implies something, as in ‘he implied that the manager was a
fool’, it means that the person is suggesting something though not saying it directly.

• If you infer something from what has been said, as in ‘we inferred from his words
that the manager is a fool’, this means that you come to the conclusion that this is
what they really mean.

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Non- or un-?
• The prefixes non- and un- both mean ‘not’ but they tend to be used in slightly different
ways.
• Non- is more neutral in meaning, while un- means an opposite and thus often suggests a
particular bias or standpoint.
• For example, unnatural means that something is not natural in a bad way, whereas non-
natural simply means ‘not natural’.

• As a consequence, where there is a genuine choice about which prefix to use, non- is
preferred in legal writing 16

• (e.g. non-statutory instead of unstatutory).

If or whether?
• Although if can mean ‘whether’, it is better to use the word whether rather
than if in writing.
• E.g (‘I’ll see whether he left an address’ rather than ‘I’ll see if he left an
address’).

Specially or especially?
• Although especially and specially can both mean ‘particularly’, they are not
exactly the same.
• Especially also means ‘in particular, chiefly’, as in ‘he distrusted them all,
especially Karan’. 17
• Specially also means ‘for a special purpose’ as in ‘the machine was specially
built for this job’.
Client or customer?
• Generally speaking, businesses that provide professional services (e.g.
lawyers, accountants) have clients.
• Businesses that sell products (e.g. retailers) have customers.

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