Authors: Joan Ames Magat
ISBN-13: 9781594605383, ISBN-10: 1594605386
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Carolina Academic Press
Date Published: January 2009
Edition: First
Joan Magat is a professor at Duke University School of Law.
While other manuals cover citation conventions, The Lawyer's Editing Manual covers all the rest that the legal writerand the editorought to know: conventions that underlie effective formal prose, including grammar and punctuation, the effective use of quotations, and usage and style. "Rules" meaning conventions most universally acceptedare stated, but so are their exceptions and, when possible, the logic for each. The legal writer's ability to communicate to the reader directly and clearly is guided not just by "correct" prose, but by stylistic conventions that further its effectiveness. The Lawyer's Editing Manual thus includes advice on unambiguous word choice and modifier placement, conciseness, sentence and paragraph structure, and effective transitions. The manual ends with conventions inspired less by consensus than by the reader's reliance on consistency, such as whether and what to capitalize or how to treat abbreviations, symbols, and lists. For these, it matters less what the writer or editor chooses to do than that the choice be consistently applied: such details should never distract from the sense of what is being written. In short, The Lawyer's Editing Manual will help legal writers craft or edit clear, concise, connected prose. It is an invaluable tool to ensure that the writer's message reaches the reader's understanding enhanced, not impeded, by the form of its communication.
Foreword: Whazzit?
Abbreviations
I Grammar: What's What
II Punctuation
III Quotations
IV Usage and Style
V Conventions
Endnotes
Glossary and Index