First Year Law Students Are Bad At Writing

You would think that law students (typically naturally gifted writers) would automatically excel at legal writing. You would think! Until you discover that good legal writing is as much science as it is art, and that good legal writing requires the mastery of certain mechanics to improve. But if you’re just beginning your first year and reading this, don’t fret. Three years of law school study and practice—not to mention law professor shaming—makes you better.

In my third year of law school, I took an elective class called Legal Editing and Professional Presence. For the sake of my legal career, I’m glad I did. The first assignment required students to revisit, review, and revise a legal memorandum that all students had to complete in their first year. We also had to review similar work by a peer. Revisiting, reviewing, and revising past work provided three valuable insights: (1) editing is easier than writing; (2) editing others work is easier than editing own work; and, (3) legal writing in plain English is, as the Editor in Chief of Black’s Law Dictionary Bryan Garner says, fundamental to good writing.

Editing Is Easier Than Writing

Honestly, I expected to complete the memo revision exercise quickly. After all, I received an "A-" in the first-year writing class. Too bad the exact opposite happened. Almost every paragraph required some form of revision. For instance, the original memo stated: “Notwithstanding Sam’s continued lack of consent, Rebecca felt she could convince Sam to change his position at some point in time.” The statement was in the memo’s “legally relevant facts” section. While the statement seems passable with a quick read, it’s very flawed. First, the use of “felt” is inappropriate. In the law, “feelings” rarely matter, and the context of that statement, they didn’t matter at all. What was more relevant was that Rebecca “tried.” Second, the phrase, “at some point in time,” at its worst adds nothing. Here, the phrase was at its worst.

The professor instructed students to use Bryan Garner’s, “The Redbook,” as a guide to help in the revision process. The New York State Bar Journal called The Redbook, “Authoritative,” for a reason. It provides helpful hints on everything from mechanics, to editing, to framing legal documents, to writing scholarly. It’s a must-have for any aspiring lawyer. The Redbook instructs to cut omit needless words, and simplify language. Based on tips provided in The Redbook, I changed the flawed statement to simply: “Rebecca continuously tried to change Sam’s position.” I think Bryan Garner would approve.

Editing Others Is Easier Than Editing Own Work

Have you ever “lost your keys” only to discover that they were hiding in plain sight? Well, that’s what it’s like to try to find errors in a memo you wrote, which you’re editing for the tenth time. So I don’t blame my very apt peer for the errors I found in her memo, which were hiding in plain sight. It’s easier when you’re editing a peer’s work. While I can’t offer a scientific explanation for this phenomenon, Grammarly.com provides a useful trick—reading out-loud.

The website argues that reading out-loud disrupts your brain’s attempt to make everything look perfect, and likely leads to stammering through poorly worded sentences and pausing at misspelled words. I used this method to edit my peer’s work and my own. The bottom line: hard to speak sections needed improvement. And perhaps even more beneficial than spotting errors, reading out-loud makes an aspiring first year law student realize just how silly legalese sounds.

Legal Writing In Plain English Is Fundamental To Good Writing

Henceforth, and forthwith, it is condign that I shall make a bona fide attempt to ameliorate my writing. Amazingly, (and believe it or not) the previous sentence actually makes sense. Unfortunately, you have to live in 15th century England to understand what it means.

There were stuffy words and legalese littered across the memo. Luckily, over the first two years of law school, law professors knocked most of that dreaded prose from my writing. One particular coach taught from the book, “Legal Writing in Plain English,” also authored by Bryan Garner. In the book, Bryan Garner argues: “[legal writing in plain English] is essentially about thinking straight. This is crucial, since it’s impossible to separate good writing from clear thinking.” I’ve applied this way of thinking/writing to all my work. It has helped to eliminate legalese and to simplify language and sentence structure. When I translated my stuffy first year memo into a document written in plain English, arguments became clear and the product improved.

Overall, I gained valuable insights from revisiting legal writing from a first year law student’s perspective. Incidentally, I also gained empathy for first year law professors. While I found humor in the fact that my writing often channeled the spirit of a 15th century English poet, I use the critique “first year law students are terrible at writing” rather tongue-and-cheek. To be fair, a student who makes it to law school is like a sprinter who makes the track team. She’s fast, but to win the 100-meter dash, she must learn that every stride counts. Study technique, apply it, practice it, and repeat!