The latest issue of the ABA Journal includes an informative piece by Jim McElhaney of Case Western Reserve Law School on effective legal writing.
Specific advice that would be especially helpful to moot court students includes the following:
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Avoid any word that does not command instant understanding. The reader should not have to strain to grasp your meaning.
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Short sentences are better. Don’t try to make every sentence a completely accurate, self-contained statement of the law or the facts. A good rule of thumb is to rewrite any sentence that is more than two lines long.
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Avoid double negatives - they stop both the ear and the eye. "Not un-" slows down the reader and takes the punch out of what you have to say.
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The active voice is usually best. The passive voice is a little stuffy and tends to create longer sentences.
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Avoid the use of "the former" and "the latter" - it stops the flow of information and offends the reader.
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Listen to what you write. Read your work out loud to as many people as you can. Your ear will catch the little mistakes and omissions that your eye missed. If anything sounds awkward or strange, fix it so that it sounds right.
You can read the full article here.
