The leading guide to clear writing—and clear thinking—in the legal profession for more than two decades, now newly updated.   Admirably clear, concise, down-to-earth, and powerful—all too often, legal writing embodies none of these qualities. Its reputation for obscurity and needless legalese is widespread. Since 2001, Bryan A. Garner’s Legal Writing in Plain English has helped address this problem by providing lawyers, judges, paralegals, law students, and legal scholars with sound advice and practical tools for improving their written work. Now the leading guide to clear writing in the field, this indispensable volume encourages legal writers to challenge conventions and offers valuable insights into the writing process: how to organize ideas, create and refine prose, and improve editing skills. Accessible and witty, Legal Writing in Plain English draws on real-life writing samples that Garner has gathered through decades of teaching experience. Trenchant advice covers all types of legal materials, from analytical and persuasive writing to legal drafting, and the book’s principles are reinforced by sets of basic, intermediate, and advanced exercises in each section. For this third edition, Garner has retained the structure of the previous versions, with updates and new material throughout. There are new sections on making your writing vivid and concrete and on using graphics to enhance your argument. The coverage and examples of key topics such as achieving parallelism, avoiding legalese, writing effective openers and summaries, and weaving quotations into your text have also been expanded. And the sample legal documents and exercises have been updated, while newly added checklists provide quick summaries of each section.   Altogether, this new edition will be the most useful yet for legal professionals and students seeking to improve their prose.  

From legal expert and veteran author Bryan Garner comes a unique, intimate, and compelling memoir of his friendship with the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. For almost thirty years, Antonin Scalia was arguably the most influential and controversial Justice on the United States Supreme Court. His dynamic and witty writing devoted to the Constitution has influenced an entire generation of judges. Based on his reputation for using scathing language to criticize liberal court decisions, many people presumed Scalia to be gruff and irascible. But to those who knew him as "Nino," he was characterized by his warmth, charm, devotion, fierce intelligence, and loyalty. Bryan Garner's friendship with Justice Scalia was instigated by celebrated writer David Foster Wallace and strengthened over their shared love of language. Despite their differing viewpoints on everything from gun control to the use of contractions, their literary and personal relationship flourished. Justice Scalia even officiated at Garner's wedding. In this humorous, touching, and surprisingly action-packed memoir, Garner gives a firsthand insight into the mind, habits, and faith of one of the most famous and misunderstood judges in the world.

In 1936 Piero Calamandrei, an Italian lawyer and law professor, published Elogio dei Giudici Scritto da un Avvocato, a wry collection of maxims, anecdotes and observations on the nature of the legal process. Translated in 1946 as Eulogy of Judges, Written by a Lawyer, it gradually acquired a reputation among sophisticated legal circles as the best lawyer's book ever written. Written by a self-described member of the "Piero Calamandrei Freemasonry Society," Eulogy of Lawyers revives the spirit of its great predecessor while shifting the focus to the other side of the bench. Preface by Bryan A. Garner, President, Law Prose, Inc.; Distinguished Research Professor of Law, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas; Editor, current editions of Black's Law Dictionary. "Stein is a rare breed: a superb, noted advocate - one of the finest of his day - who is also a literary essayist. I can think of only two comparable predecessors: Lord Brougham and Clarence Darrow." --Bryan A. Garner, Preface, xii-xiii. Jacob A. Stein has, for over 60 years, conducted a trial practice. He has been an adjunct professor at American University Law School, George Washington University Law School, and Georgetown University Law School where he has taught for the last 21 years. He has been president of the District of Columbia Bar. He has served on various judicial committees connected with the Federal Judiciary. He was appointed in 1985 to serve as the United States Independent Counsel to inquire as to the suitability of the President's choice as Attorney General of the United States. His articles have appeared in The American Scholar, Times Literary Supplement, The Washington Post, The Wilson Quarterly, the Washington Lawyer, the Green Bag, Litigation, and other publications. His books include Legal Spectator & More (2003), The Law of Law Firms (1994), Closing Argument: The Art and the Law (1969) and other titles.

Originally published: Washington, D.C.: BNA Incorporated, 1961. iii (New Introduction), xvi, 506 pp. With a New Introduction by Bryan A. Garner, President, LawProse, Inc. This book tells how to brief and how to argue a Federal case on appeal. Its primary purpose is to explain to the lawyer how to best persuade a Federal appellate court to decide a case in his favor. It is neither a practice manual nor a text of Federal appellate procedure, being written on the assumption that all the procedural steps necessary to perfect the appeal have been or will be timely taken. Consequently this book deals with problems that are common to appeals in whatever Federal court they may be presented.
Many of the principles defined and discussed herein are applicable also to the argument, oral and written, of questions of fact and law presented and heard in Federal trial courts. The task of presenting facts and law effectively, the psychology of persuasion, the requirements of candor and accuracy-these are matters common to forensic effort in every courtroom, at every state of a litigated proceeding.
In addition to its discussion of appellate advocacy and a description of procedure in the federal appellate courts (Supreme Court, U.S. Court of Appeals, and specialized federal courts), it provides valuable guidelines for writing briefs and appeals and the preparing oral arguments.
Among other lessons, it teaches ways to -think before writing, -state facts and phrase issues persuasively, -use argumentative headings, -employ clear, forceful English, -handle questions in oral argument, -use maps and charts effectively and -prevent "forensic halitosis."
AALS Law Books Recommended for Libraries List 26, Legal Profession, page 20, "A" Rated.
"To get into court and to maintain your right to be there is the object of all pleading and is as important in an appellate court as in a trial court () This book is a guide to handling of cases on appeal in the Federal courts by one who is eminently qualified to instruct and direct in this field."
--from the foreword by Sherman Minton, Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court
"Anyone familiar with Mr. Wiener's reputation as an appellate advocate and with his earlier works would expect his new book to be either required reading or strongly recommended in a course in Appellate Practice and Procedure. My own choice for next spring's seminar at this law school is to require it. This is not to say, however, that the book is directed solely to the student in law school. There are probably few practicing attorneys who would not benefit substantially from the author's ability, drawing on his vast personal experience, to expound the art of appellate advocacy in a fascinating and instructive way."
-- Monroe H. Freedman, The George Washington Law Review 30 (1961-62) 148.
"This is a brilliant book by a brilliant mind. It's the seminal 20th-century book on appellate advocacy, with wisdom, insight, and concrete examples packed into page after page."
--Bryan A. Garner
Frederick Bernys Wiener 1906-1996], or "Fritz" as he was known to his friends, was educated at Brown University and Harvard Law School, where he was a note editor on Harvard Law Review. In addition to several years in private practice, Wiener held positions in the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Judge Advocate General's Corps (as an officer during the Second World War) and the Solicitor General's Office, where he successfully argued the landmark Supreme Court case Reid v. Covert. Also a scholar of vast learning and high reputation, he wrote copiously on courts-martial, martial law and legal history.

Admirably clear, concise, down-to-earth, and powerful - all too often, legal writing embodies none of these qualities. Its reputation for obscurity and needless legalese is widespread. Since 2001 Bryan A. Garner's "Legal Writing in Plain English" has helped address this problem by providing lawyers, judges, paralegals, law students, and legal scholars with sound advice and practical tools for improving their written work. Now the leading guide to clear writing in the field, this indispensable volume encourages legal writers to challenge conventions and offers valuable insights into the writing process that will appeal to other professionals: how to organize ideas, create and refine prose, and improve editing skills. Accessible and witty, "Legal Writing in Plain English" draws on real-life writing samples that Garner has gathered through decades of teaching experience. Trenchant advice covers all types of legal materials, from analytical and persuasive writing to legal drafting, and the book's principles are reinforced by sets of basic, intermediate, and advanced exercises in each section. In this new edition, Garner preserves the successful structure of the original while adjusting the content to make it even more class-room-friendly. He includes case examples from the past decade and addresses the widespread use of legal documents in electronic formats. His book remains the standard guide for producing the jargon-free language that clients demand and courts reward.

Should horses in Charleston be required to wear diapers? Does the hotchpot rule apply when dividing a testator's 17 residuary elephants? Which verse in the Old Testament was the life-saving 'neck' verse? May sexual intercourse be conducted on a without prejudice basis? These questions and many others like them are raised but not always fully answered in A New Miscellany-at-Law. This follows the same style as its two predecessors but consists of entirely new material, some of it suggested by the readers of the first two volumes. Like them, it collects accounts of strange and remarkable cases, striking court-room exchanges, wise and witty utterances from the Bench, and much else that illumines the law. For the common law world its reach is global, with many riches from the USA; and Scotland is not forgotten. Although the book is primarily for lawyers, a glossary and explanatory footnotes enable non-lawyers to share in the humour. Some may read the book from cover to cover; but for most there will be the pleasures of browsing, often surprisingly prolonged. A New Miscellany-at-Law also includes many other jewels. There is the touching Conveyancer's Ode to His Beloved, the court's refusal to consider whether bees should be classified as invitees, licensees or trespassers, a deplorable account of a wife being part-exchanged for a Newfoundland dog, the future Lord Denning's reference to a wife who was actually committing adultery while denying it in the witness box, and 'fustum funnidos tantaraboo' in Chancery.

DON'T LET YOUR WRITING HOLD YOU BACK. When you're fumbling for words and pressed for time, you might be tempted to dismiss good business writing as a luxury. But it's a skill you must cultivate to succeed: You'll lose time, money, and influence if your e-mails, proposals, and other important documents fail to win people over. The HBR Guide to Better Business Writing, by writing expert Bryan A. Garner, gives you the tools you need to express your ideas clearly and persuasively so clients, colleagues, stakeholders, and partners will get behind them. This book will help you: Push past writer's block Grab and keep readers' attention Earn credibility with tough audiences Trim the fat from your writing Strike the right tone Brush up on grammar, punctuation, and usage

An exploration of a surprisingly combative period in the history of English grammar. Heated arguments can break out over many things: slander, insults to a person's honor-and, during one period in English history, grammar. In his new book detailing the controversies and fraught histories that accompanied efforts to regularize English grammar, Bryan A. Garner shows that the grammarians of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were a surprisingly contentious and opinionated lot. Taming the Tongue in the Heyday of English Grammar (1711-1851) makes the primers of the period come alive in ways that their concerned and idiosyncratic authors might not have envisioned. The entries in Taming the Tongue-which has nearly five hundred color illustrations-are packed with scrupulously recorded information on the content and publication details of the primers, as well as tantalizing tales from the authors' lives. Combining scholarly rigor with lively anecdotes, Garner sheds light on the controversies and unexpectedly fiery histories of English grammatical disputes.

Few people can write with as much authority on the English language as Bryan A. Garner. The author of "The" "Chicago Manual of Style" s popular Grammar and Usage chapter, Garner is adept at explaining the vagaries of English with absolute precision and utmost clarity. With "The Chicago Guide to English Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation," he has written the definitive guide for writers who want their prose to be both memorable and correct. Throughout the book Garner describes standard literary English the forms that mark writers and speakers as educated users of the language. He also offers historical context for understanding the development of these forms. The section on grammar explains how the canonical parts of speech came to be identified, while the section on syntax covers the nuances of sentence patterns as well as both traditional sentence diagramming and transformational grammar. The usage section offers an unprecedented trove of empirical evidence in the form of Google Ngrams, diagrams that illustrate the changing prevalence of specific terms over decades and even centuries of English literature. The book also covers punctuation and word formation, concluding with an exhaustive glossary of grammatical terms and a bibliography of suggested further reading and references. "The Chicago Guide to English Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation "is a magisterial work, the culmination of Garner s life-long study of the English language. The result is a landmark resource that will offer clear guidelines to students, writers, and editors alike"

DON'T LET YOUR WRITING HOLD YOU BACK.
When you're fumbling for words and pressed for time, you might be tempted to dismiss good business writing as a luxury. But it's a skill you "must" cultivate to succeed: You'll lose time, money, and influence if your e-mails, proposals, and other important documents fail to win people over.
The "HBR Guide to Better Business Writing," by writing expert Bryan A. Garner, gives you the tools you need to express your ideas clearly and persuasively so clients, colleagues, stakeholders, and partners will get behind them. This book will help you:
- Push past writer's block
- Grab--and keep--readers' attention
- Earn credibility with tough audiences
- Trim the fat from your writing
- Strike the right tone
- Brush up on grammar, punctuation, and usage

The perfect set of guides to manage productively and effectively. Master the most critical professional skills with this five-volume set that covers topics from personal effectiveness to leading others. This specially priced collection includes books from the HBR Guide series on the topics of Getting the Right Work Done, Better Business Writing, Persuasive Presentations, Making Every Meeting Matter, and Project Management. You'll learn how to: Prioritize and stay focused Overcome procrastination Conquer email overload Push past writer's block Create powerful visuals Establish credibility with tough audiences Moderate lively conversations and regain control of wayward meetings Build a strong project team Create a realistic schedule--and stay on track Manage stakeholders' expectations Arm yourself with the advice you need to succeed on the job, with the most trusted brand in business. Packed with how-to essentials from leading experts, the HBR Guides provide smart answers to your most pressing work challenges.

The most original and authoritative voice of today's English lexicography presents a fully revised new edition of his beloved usage dictionary When Bryan Garner published the first edition of A Dictionary of Modern American Usage in 1999, the book quickly became one of the most influential style guides ever written for the English language. After four previous editions and over twenty years, our language has evolved in many ways, and the powerful tool of big data has revolutionized lexicography. This extensively revised new edition fully captures these changes, featuring a thousand new entries and over two hundred replacement entries, thoroughly updated usage data and ratios on word frequency based on the Google Ngram Viewer, a more balanced coverage of World Englishes, not just American and British, and the inclusion of gender-neutral language. However, one thing has not changed: in no sense is this a "regular" dictionary but a masterpiece of lexicography written with wit and personality by one of the preeminent authorities on the English language. To put it in David Foster Wallace's words, Garner's discussion of rhetoric and style still "borders on genius." From the (lost) battle between self-deprecating and self-depreciating to the misuse of it's for its, from the variant spelling patty-cake taking over pat-a-cake in American English to the singular uses of they, Garner explains the nuances of grammar and vocabulary and the linguistic blunders to which modern writers and speakers are prone, whether in word choice, syntax, phrasing, punctuation, or pronunciation. His empirical approach liberates English from two extremes: from the "purists" who maintain that split infinitives and sentence-ending prepositions are malfeasances and from the linguistic relativists who believe that whatever people say or write must necessarily be accepted. The purpose of Garner's dictionary is to help writers, editors, and speakers use the language effectively. And it does so in a playful and persuasive way that will help you sound "grammatical but relaxed, refined but natural, correct but unpedantic."

How-to guides to your most pressing work challenges. This 16-volume, specially priced boxed set makes a perfect gift for aspiring leaders looking for trusted advice on such diverse topics as data analytics, negotiating, business writing, and coaching. This set includes Persuasive Presentations, Better Business Writing, Finance Basics, Data Analytics, Building Your Business Case, Making Every Meeting Matter, Project Management, Emotional Intelligence, Getting the Right Work Done, Negotiating, Leading Teams, Coaching Employees, Performance Management, Delivering Effective Feedback, Dealing with Conflict, and Managing Up and Across. Arm yourself with the advice you need to succeed on the job, from the most trusted brand in business. Packed with how-to essentials from leading experts, the HBR Guides provide smart answers to your most pressing work challenges Also available as an ebook set.

This abridgement of the acclaimed Dictionary of Modern American Usage is a handy guide that discusses the most common problems of style and usage.

In 1936 Piero Calamandrei, an Italian lawyer and law professor, published Elogio dei Giudici Scritto da un Avvocato, a wry collectionof maxims, anecdotes and observations on the nature of the legalprocess. Translated in 1946 as Eulogy of Judges, Written by a Lawyer, it gradually acquired a reputation among sophisticated legal circlesas the best lawyer's book ever written. Written by a self-describedmember of the "Piero Calamandrei Freemasonry Society," Eulogy ofLawyers revives the spirit of its great predecessor while shifting thefocus to the other side of the bench.Preface by Bryan A. Garner, President, LawProse, Inc.; Distinguished Research Professor of Law, SouthernMethodist University, Dallas, Texas; Editor, current editions ofBlack's Law Dictionary."Stein is a rare breed: a superb, noted advocate - one of the finestof his day - who is also a literary essayist. I can think of only twocomparable predecessors: Lord Brougham and Clarence Darrow." --Bryan A.Garner, Preface, xii-xiii.Jacob A. Stein has, for over 60 years, conducted a trial practice. Hehas been an adjunct professor at American University Law School, George Washington University Law School, and Georgetown University LawSchool where he has taught for the last 21 years. He has beenpresident of the District of Columbia Bar. He has served on variousjudicial committees connected with the Federal Judiciary. He wasappointed in 1985 to serve as the United States Independent Counsel toinquire as to the suitability of the President's choice as AttorneyGeneral of the United States. His articles have appeared in The American Scholar, Times Literary Supplement, The Washington Post, TheWilson Quarterly, the Washington Lawyer, the Green Bag, Litigation, and other publications. His books include Legal Spectator & More(2003), The Law of Law Firms (1994), Closing Argument: The Art and theLaw (1969) and other titles.

Here in a full linked, easily searchable CD-ROM are two classic legal reference works: Bryan Garner's Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage, Second Edition, and Fred Shapiro's Oxford Dictionary of American Legal Quotations. With more than 9,000 definitions and more than 3,500 quotations on all aspects of the law, The Lawyer's Reference Shelf is a valuable professional resource for art who study, teach, practice, or write about the law -- merging the "indispensable" legal dictionary (Michigan Bar Journal with the "standard" (Library Journal) legal quotations source in one carefully integrated research tool.