The minute you read something that you can t understand, you can almost be sure it was drawn up by a lawyer. Will Rogers

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2 The minute you read something that you can t understand, you can almost be sure it was drawn up by a lawyer. Will Rogers

3 The writer is under pressure to take shortcuts. This has become the normal environment of most legal writing, and is one of the principal reasons why so much of it is so bad. --David Mellinkoff, Legal Writing: Sense and Nonsense

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5 There are two things wrong with almost all legal writing. One is its style. The other is its content. FRED RODELL

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12 A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people. -- THOMAS MANN

13 The pen is the tongue of the mind. CERVANTES

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16 There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily; and perfectly; sometimes it s like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges. ERNEST HEMINGWAY

17 Words so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them. NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

18 The desire to write grows with writing. DESIDERIUS ERASMUS

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20 Precise language mirrors clear thought. EUGENE C. GERHART

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22 A sentence gets its force from short words. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR.

23 A good writer writes with a thesaurus and a dictionary at his elbow. Elliott L. Biskind Legal Writing Simplified

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26 [T]he value of adjectives and adverbs is in inverse ratio to the frequency of their use. Elliott L. Biskind Legal Writing Simplified

27 The road to hell is paved with adverbs. STEPHEN KING

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29 The adjective is the enemy of the noun. VOLTAIRE

30 When you catch an adjective, kill it. --MARK TWAIN

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32 The structure of every sentence is a lesson in logic. JOHN STUART MILL

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36 There is no such thing as good writing. There is only good rewriting. JUSTICE LOUIS BRANDEIS SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

37 Let the reader find that he cannot afford to omit any line of your writing because you have omitted every word that he can spare. --RALPH WALDO EMERSON

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39 The most important lesson in the writing trade is that any manuscript is improved if you cut away the fat. ROBERT HEINLEIN

40 No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else's draft. H.G. WELLS

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42 "I leave out the parts that people skip. ELMORE LEONARD

43 Habit can be a built-in obstruction to consistently good style, notwithstanding editing and rewriting. Elliott L. Biskind Legal Writing Simplified

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45 bee care full win yew ewes spell checque:?. PAMELA PANTSUIT

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48 And/or is best discarded. --J.K. Aitken, Piesse s The Elements of Drafting

49 With experience you ll find that you don t need and/or. Bryan A. Garner, Legal Writing in Plain English

50 If the lawyers did invent and/or, they owe it to the common language to atone, by eliminating and/or from the legal vocabulary.... David Mellinkoff, Legal Writing: Sense and Nonsense

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61 The minute you read something that you can t understand, you can almost be sure it was drawn up by a lawyer. Will Rogers

62 The common language of the law is not the product of necessity, precedent, convention, or economy, but it is the product of sloth, confusion, hurry, cowardice, ignorance, neglect, and cultural poverty. JUDGE LYNN N. HUGHES U.S. DISTRICT COURT, HOUSTON, TEXAS.

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64 There are two things wrong with almost all legal writing. One is its style. The other is its content. FRED RODELL

65 A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect? And he will probably ask himself two more: 1. Could I put it more shortly? 2. Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly? GEORGE ORWELL Politics and the English Language:

66 The essence of writing is to know your subject. - David McCullough

67 Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind. RUDYARD KIPLING

68 He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know. - Abraham Lincoln

69 There are two things wrong with almost all legal writing. One is its style. The other is its content. FRED RODELL

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74 Precise language mirrors clear thought. EUGENE C. GERHART

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77 Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret of style. --MATTHEW ARNOLD

78 The chief virtue that language can have is clarity. HIPPOCRATES ( BC)

79 Everything that can be thought at all can be thought clearly. Everything that can be said can be said clearly. LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN

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81 Good prose should be transparent, like a window pane. GEORGE ORWELL

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83 The biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished. GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

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85 Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people. WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

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87 Precise language mirrors clear thought. EUGENE C. GERHART

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89 Cut out all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke. F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

90 I hate commas in the wrong places. WALT WHITMAN

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92 The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do. THOMAS JEFFERSON

93 Be direct, simple, brief, vigorous, and lucid. H.W. FOWLER

94 This report, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read. - SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL

95 The shorter and the plainer the better. BEATRIX POTTER

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97 What is above all needed is to let the meaning choose the word, and not the other way around. In prose, the worst thing one can do with words is surrender to them. -- George Orwell Politics and the English Language

98 The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter it s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. --MARK TWAIN

99 The finest language is mostly made up of simple unimposing words. GEORGE ELIOT (MARY ANNE EVANS)

100 Use the smallest word that does the job. E.B. WHITE

101 One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple. JACK KEROUAC

102 I like good strong words that mean something. - LOUISA MAY ALCOTT

103 Be direct, simple, brief, vigorous, and lucid. H.W. FOWLER

104 Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words when short are best of all. WINSTON CHURCHILL

105 The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do. THOMAS JEFFERSON

106 The shorter and the plainer the better. BEATRIX POTTER

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108 Be direct, simple, brief, vigorous, and lucid. H.W. FOWLER

109 The best writing has no lace on its sleeves. WALT WHITMAN

110 Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. ALBERT EINSTEIN

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112 What is above all needed is to let the meaning choose the word, and not the other way around. In prose, the worst thing one can do with words is surrender to them. -- George Orwell Politics and the English Language

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