Rosky Legal Education LLC

Let’s face it most readers sleep through long quotes. Deal with that reality by following these suggestions: 1) Use block quotes sparinglyusually to convey the context or tone of your source or, in rare circumstances, when you need to include an entire rule or provision instead of an excerpt. When you use block quotes infrequently, your readers are more likely to pay attention. 2) Introduce long quotes meaningfully. Serve them up in your own words to make their relevanc...e obvious. Do the reader’s work for her. For example, which introduction is more useful for a long quote about a company’s right to break its lease? The contract provides that Or: The contract gives Company X the right to break its lease at any time: In one fell swoop, you’ve conveyed your point and made your reader’s job easier. Win win!

Let’s face it most readers sleep through long quotes. Deal with that reality by following these suggestions: 1) Use block quotes sparinglyusually to convey the context or tone of your source or, in rare circumstances, when you need to include an entire rule or provision instead of an excerpt. When you use block quotes infrequently, your readers are more likely to pay attention. 2) Introduce long quotes meaningfully. Serve them up in your own words to make their relevanc...e obvious. Do the reader’s work for her. For example, which introduction is more useful for a long quote about a company’s right to break its lease? The contract provides that Or: The contract gives Company X the right to break its lease at any time: In one fell swoop, you’ve conveyed your point and made your reader’s job easier. Win win!

Legal writing tip of the day: Beware of the dreaded "double tentative"! Gain your reader's trust in your legal analysis by following these rules: 1) Don't be tentative unless you absolutely need to be. ... 2) If you just have that unavoidable sense that you may have missed something, make reasonable assertions without caveats. 3) If you have a legitimate reason for expressing tentativeness, adopt a strict one-caveat-per-sentence limit. For example: The arbitration provision will most likely apply. Not: It seems that the arbitration provision would most likely apply. Explain your uncertainty, and don't hide behind hedges!

Progress! My former employers make it official"they" is now a singular pronoun published in the Merriam Webster dictionary: "We recently announced the addition of the nonbinary use of theythat is, they as it's used to refer to a single person whose gender identity is nonbinary ... All new words and meanings that we enter in our dictionaries meet three criteria: meaningful use, sustained use, and widespread use. ... It's helpful to remember that the pronoun you was initially plural, which is why it too takes the plural verb even when it's referring to a single person." https://www.merriam-webster.com//nonbinary-they-is-in-the-

Totally entertaining and spot-on! Don't mind the fancy and obscure grammatical names, just enjoy the incredible drawing and useful tips.

Troubling news, and a (less) troubling grammatical error in the headline.

Important public-service announcement on apostrophe abuse.

OK, here's my grammalysis (ok I made that word up) of the Donald. He uses way too many adjectives. Unbelievable, fantastic, great, tremendous, and of course . . . YUGE! Any decent writer knows you can't rely on adjectives and adverbs to make your point. Show, don't tell, Mr. Trump.

OK, here's my grammalysis (ok I made that word up) of the Donald. He uses way too many adjectives. Unbelievable, fantastic, great, tremendous, and of course . . . YUGE! Any decent writer knows you can't rely on adjectives and adverbs to make your point. Show, don't tell, Mr. Trump.

Yes! I'm always telling my clients to present information so that readers can take it in effortlessly.

Beware of the subtle ways you undermine your authority. Just sayin!

Diagramming is old school, and only a word nerd like me would call it fun. But it's hard to improve your writing if you can't identify the main parts of a sentence. Embrace your inner word nerd.

Orwellian advice.

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