18 Wednesday Jan 2017
Posted in Abbreviations, Editing, Grammar, Initialisms, Legal Writing, Numbers, Punctuation, Style Manuals
≈ Comments Off on New and Updated GPO Style Manual.
GPO Style Manual: new edition, Barco 3.0: Law Library Reference
The Government Publishing Office has published a thorough and updated Style Manual, which includes rules for punctuation, grammar, abbreviations, and computer terms, among other things. You will find “New Features and Enhancements” at https://www.govinfo.gov/features/release-notes/govinfo-beta-launch.
16 Wednesday Sep 2015
Posted in Abbreviations, Acronyms, Citations, Footnotes, Legal Writing, Legislative History, Numbers, Parentheses, Parentheticals, Punctuation, Quotations, String Citations, The Bluebook
≈ Comments Off on Have You Bought Your 20th Edition of The Bluebook®?
Personally, I’m waiting for Peter Martin at Cornell to update his excellent Bluebook® Cheat Sheet. But, if you want to know all things Bluebook®, I can recommend this website – https://www.legalbluebook.com/.
This website also provides a way to buy a hard copy, which is my preference when I use it regularly. If you use The Bluebook® at all, I recommend bookmarking and browsing here the entire website and its features. Yearly subscriptions are a reasonable rate.
The good news for Bluebook® users is that, at the beginning of every new edition, there is a list of the differences between this version and the last one. Here is a preview of what is new in the 20th Edition: https://www.legalbluebook.com/Public/Updates.aspx.
Yes, you will wonder about why some of the changes were made. That is a given. But isn’t it nice to have all the changes summarized and listed for you right up front. No guessing and no reason to search the entire book to find the updates. -CCE
31 Friday Jul 2015
Posted in Adobe Acrobat, Editing, Grammar, Legal Technology, Legal Writing, Numbers, Punctuation, Style Manuals
≈ Comments Off on Free Legal Style Guide from Adobe.
Adobe Legal Department Legal Style Guide (with hat tip to William P. Statsky)
http://www.adobe.com/legal/legal-innovation.html
A free, concise legal writing style guide from Adobe. Definitely worth a look. -CCE
02 Saturday May 2015
Posted in Contract Law, Legal Writing, Numbers
≈ Comments Off on Why It’s A Bad Idea To Use Both Words and Digits When Writing Numbers.
Tags
Adams on Contract Drafting, Contract Writing, Ken Adams, Legal Writing, Strunk and White, Writing Numbers
Revisiting Use of Words and Digits to Express Numbers, by Ken Adams, Adams on Contract Drafting
http://www.adamsdrafting.com/revisiting-use-of-words-and-digits-to-express-numbers/
Some legal writers advocate writing out a number and then adding digits in parentheses. In this post, Ken Adams argues against this practice. If anything, it makes what your writing more verbose and harder to read regardless of the type of document.
Most people do not argue with Strunk and White. Its 3rd edition says to spell out numbers under 100, and use digits for numbers 100 and above. The 4th edition, which came out in 2000, specifically admonishes against spelling out numbers, unless they are used in dialogue. -CCE
More often than not, contract drafters use words and digits to express numbers, as in no later than thirty (30) days after the Closing. That’s a bad idea, for two reasons:
First, it creates clutter that distracts the reader. And the more numbers a contract contains, the greater the distraction.
And second, it violates a cardinal rule of drafting—Thou shalt not state the same thing twice in a contract! Whenever you say the same thing twice, you introduce a potential source of inconsistency. . . .
