It’s that time of year again — when a bright-eyed group of recent law school graduates are sworn in to become lawyers. A time when we more seasoned lawyers make a point of welcoming our newest colleagues to the bar. ...

Tagged with: Karin Ciano legal writing

Let’s imagine a friend has asked you to read over her brief. She’s eloquent, persuasive, and her grammar and punctuation are beyond reproach. And then you see a snarky phrase. Your pen hovers over it. Let it be, or take ...

Tagged with: expert opinion Karin Ciano

In our first year of law school we learn the building blocks of legal argument — the concept of reasoning from precedent, and the IRAC (Introduction, Rule, Application, Conclusion) formula that allows us to translate that reasoning into written analysis. ...

Tagged with: Expert Opinion Karin Ciano

You remember IRAC, of course. Sometime in the first year of law school, most of us get acquainted with the Introduction-Rule-Application-Conclusion formula the way kids in kindergarten get to know each other at the start of the school year: “Here ...

Tagged with: Expert Opinion Karin Ciano legal writing

I can always spot a former law review editor. Maybe you can too: When you receive a colleague’s comments on a draft, have you ever found your abbreviations field-stripped, spaces and punctuation marks overhauled, accompanied by a calling-card in the ...

Tagged with: expert opinion Karin Ciano

Few subjects arouse such irritation (on all sides) as the enduring question of how many spaces to put after a period at the end of a sentence. Some say two. Some say one. And the rest are headed off to ...

Tagged with: Expert Opinion Karin Ciano legal writing

So what do you think: Should citations be in text or footnotes? I’m a text fan myself. Despite Bryan Garner’s efforts over the past two decades, most recently in an ABA Journal article earlier this year, I still don’t feel ...

Tagged with: Expert Opinion Karin Ciano

“So you’re the grammar police now?” I’m not sure why, but when you start writing about writing, people get nervous. Well-spoken, trusted friends worry that you’ll suddenly start correcting their sentences in public: “Pssst … you just split your infinitive.” ...

Tagged with: Expert Opinion Karin Ciano

A reader recently asked, “Is there anything you can do to make lawyers and judges knock off the irritating (irritating) repetition of spelled-out numbers?” Thank you, dear reader, for your excellent question. About the judges? No. Lawyers, however, might want ...

Tagged with: Expert Opinion Karin Ciano

Do you make New Year’s resolutions about things you plan to learn and improve? I do. This year I’m focusing on editing. 1. I will edit for clarity. The first principle of writing is to communicate clearly. Readers have limited ...

Tagged with: Expert Opinion Karin Ciano