Great Legal Writing

Max Barrett

Book

Great Legal Writing

Lessons from Literature

Max Barrett

Published: 2023
Pages: 293

eBook: 9781787429512

This book provides key lessons on legal writing that can be gleaned from various leading authors of the past and brought to bear in crafting more polished legal texts. Among the great authors considered are Joseph Conrad, Guy de Maupassant, E.M. Forster, Thomas Hardy, Henry James, D.H. Lawrence, Robert Louis Stevenson and Virginia Woolf.

Front Cover	Front Cover
Title Page	1
Copyright Page\r\n	2
Table of contents	3
Foreword	9
1. Lawrence: On morality, aesthetics and other matters	15
1. Writing engagingly	15
2. Didacticism and the ‘art’ of writing	17
3. Moralising	18
4. Detachment	19
5. Writing intelligently, coherently and honestly	21
Key propositions	23
2. Besant: On the ‘laws’ of fiction and other matters	25
1. Writing engagingly	25
2. Sympathy and writing	27
3. Selection in writing	27
4. Elevation of mind	27
5. ‘Laws’ of writing	28
Key propositions	35
3. Conrad: On bringing light to truth and other matters	37
1. Bringing light to truth	37
2. Different author types	38
3. Emotion, morality and writing	39
4. Pursuit of truth	40
Key propositions	41
4. Crawford: On moralising, flippancy and other matters	43
1. Types of text	43
2. Purpose of text	44
3. Effect of writing	46
4. Moralising	47
5. Flippant and colloquial writing	48
6. Self-discipline	49
7. Brevity, simplicity, etc	51
8. Illusion, truth and writing	53
9. Realising the author’s conception	53
10. Using foreign words	54
11. Digression	55
12. Life experience and writing	55
13. Amusement/humour in writing	56
14. The ethics of writing	57
15. Sympathy	57
Key propositions	59
5. De Maupassant: On honesty, simplicity and other matters	61
1. Originality	61
2. Expectations as to form	62
3. The pursuit of truth	63
4. Detachment	64
5. Exactness and carefulness	65
6. Using simple vocabulary	67
Key propositions	68
6. De Quincey: On style and other matters	71
1. Style and writing	71
2. Why is style important?	73
3. Writing versus speech	73
4. Carelessness in writing	74
5. Media influence on language	78
6. Unduly long or conditional sentences	80
7. Using foreign words	81
8. Different aspects of style	82
9. Punctuation	83
10. Footnotes	84
11. Repetition and brevity	85
Key propositions	86
7. Forster: On the text as a story and other matters	89
1. Legal texts as stories	89
2. Writing engagingly	90
3. Writing and voice	93
4. Detachment	98
5. Plot and writing	99
6. Writing a conclusion	101
7. Different types of writer	102
8. Patterns in writing and writing models	104
Key propositions	106
8. Hardy: On sincerity, originality and other matters	107
1. Sincerity	107
2. Originality	108
3. Detachment	110
4. ‘Laws’ of writing	112
5. Hardy’s observations summarised	114
6. Carelessness in writing	115
Key propositions	116
9. The Hawthornes: On theme, tone, truth, the task of writing and other matters	119
1. Plainness and simplicity	119
2. Tone	120
3. Morality and writing	122
4. Writing models and formulae	124
5. The steps to writing a text	125
6. The ‘art’ of writing	127
7. Writing powerfully	128
8. Transcendent text	129
9. Types of writer	130
10. Some common failures in writing	133
11. Legal texts as national literature	139
12. Writing engagingly	140
13. Condescension and children	145
14. What makes a good writer?	147
Key propositions	149
10. Hazlitt: On pedantry, insight, jargon and other matters	151
1. Pedantry	151
2. Reading other texts	152
3. Jargon	154
4. Using foreign words	157
Key propositions	158
11. James: On the art and duty of writing, humour and other matters	159
1. The ‘art’ of writing	159
2. Task of the writer	162
3. Amusement, humour and didacticism in writing	163
4. Superabundant judgments	167
5. Writing engagingly	172
6. Avoiding ornamental writing	177
7. Writing engagingly, recounting facts	179
8. Types of writing	181
9. Style and freedom in writing	185
Key propositions	187
12. Stevenson: On composition, pattern, sound and other matters	189
1. Vocabulary, word choice and grammar	189
2. Composing a text	198
3. Style	200
4. Key elements of style	203
5. Patterns in writing and writing models	204
6. ‘Sound’ in writing	205
7. What to include or omit	207
Key propositions	209
13. Trollope: On literary quality, truth and the ‘rules’ of writing	211
1. Artistry and writing	211
2. Honesty in writing	212
3. ‘Laws’ of writing	215
Key propositions	218
14. Woolf: On quality in writing, ‘rules’ of writing and other matters	221
1. Weaknesses of modern writing	221
2. Lifeless writing	237
3. Forms of writing	237
4. Honesty and writing	239
5. Stream of consciousness	240
6. Concision in writing	243
7. ‘Rules’ of writing	244
8. Long words and opening words	244
9. Writing engagingly	245
Key propositions	252
Afterword: Towards a code of good legal writing	255
Appendix: Writing for the young and vulnerable	269
Table of cases	283
Index	285
About the author	291
About Globe Law and Business	293

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Great Legal Writing

Lessons from Literature

Table of Contents

Practical, topical titles for international legal and business professionals

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Great Legal Writing

Lessons from Literature

Table of Contents

Practical, topical titles for international legal and business professionals