Writing Tips

Dull Words and Phrases

• 7 Avoidable Phrases That Make Writing Dull
• Why and How to Avoid Clichés
• Why Adjectivization Dulls Your Writing
• What Is a Nominalization, Exactly?

Useless Words

• Identifying and Removing Useless Words
• Why You Should Check Your Writing for "As"
• Eight Words You Rarely Need
• Mistakes Writers Make with Their Writing Style
• Two Words That Signal the Most Verbiage
• We Hope You Aren't Using These 6 Sentence Openings in Your Writing
• Office Jargon to Remove from Your Vocabulary
• Participle vs. Preposition: Do I Need Both?
• What Does "Throat-Clearing" in a Sentence Look Like?
• Tips to Recognize Useless Words
• How Lawyers Inadvertently Repeat Themselves
• 15 Common Sentence Openings to Avoid
• Where We Often Add Unnecessary Words
• Why "of" Often Signals Wordiness
Show All

Legal Writing

• Using Language Like This Hurts Your Case
• Advice for Wording Contracts
• Writing Is The Most Important Thing We Do Every Day
• The Best Reference Works for Writers
• Organization Tricks to Write Faster
• How Brainstorming Speeds up Writing
• How and When to Use Quotations
• Why Spellcheck Isn't Enough – With Examples
• How to Meet Federal Appellate Court Word Limits
• Why Lawyers Shouldn't Argue in Their Fact Statements
• "You Write Like a Lawyer" Isn't a Compliment
• Does a Lawyer Need to Define Terms in a Brief?
• Here's Why Numbers Confuse Judges and Clients
• Avoiding Irrelevant Facts in the Fact Statement
• How to Irritate Clients (Part 3 of 3)
• How to Irritate Clients (Part 2 of 3)
• How to Irritate Clients (Part 1 of 3)
• The Value of Concise Legal Writing
• Are You Weakening Your Point with "Indicate"?
• The Best Way to Open a Client Letter (Part 3 of 3)
• The Best Way to Open a Client Letter (Part 2 of 3)
• The Best Way to Open a Client Letter (Part 1 of 3)
• Why Anthropomorphism Can Hurt Your Writing
• One Person Who Should Always Review Your Writing
• Do These 2 Things To Weaken Your Legal Case
• Why Needless Abbreviations Hurt Your Case
• The 10 Myths of Legal Writing
• One Way You Should Never Open a Brief
• Remove These Phrases to Strengthen Your Brief
• 6 Sentence Openings That Will Irritate Any Judge
• One Thing Judges Never Read
• Examples of Insulting Language to Avoid in a Brief
• Why Not to Use "Clear" in a Brief
• The Benefits of Putting People in Your Writing
• Are "Impact," "Irregardless," and "Hopefully" Real Words?
Show All

Proofreading

• Test Your Proofreading Skills
• Why Spellcheck Isn't Enough – With Examples
• A Halloween-Themed Proofreading Exercise
• One Person Who Should Always Review Your Writing

Sentence Structure

• When to Use Transitions
• When and Whether to Use a Pronoun
• Prepositional Versus Participial Phrases
• What to Do With Parenthetical Asides
• Where to Place Conditional Clauses
• What Is a Conditional Clause?
• Tips to Avoid Run-On Sentences
• Are Topic Sentences Necessary?
• Why Lawyers Should Be Wary of Transitions
• Appropriate Sentence Length
• Where to Put the Most Important Information in Your Sentence
Show All

Grammar and Usage

• Whether to Use Subjective or Objective Pronouns
• It's Just a Southern Thing! A Spoof on Why Southerners Say "Y'all"
• The Difference between "Like" and "As," Explained!
• Do You Use "Echelon," "Chevron," "Penultimate," and "Pulchritudinous" Correctly?
• What Is the Difference between "Different Than" and "Different From"?
• Is There a Difference between "Bi" and "Semi"?
• The Top 3 Most Easily Confused Word Pairs
• How to Know If You Should Use "That"
• Differentiate between "Predicament," "Dilemma," "Quandary," "Plight," "Pickle," and "Jam"
• 3 Important Tips for Understanding Modal Verbs
• Differences between Obtuse and Abstruse, Aggravate and Annoy
• How to Choose between "Farther" and "Further," "Less" and "Fewer"
• The Best Reference Works for Writers
• Identifying and Correcting Double Negatives
• Whether to Use "That" or "Which"
• How to Make Your Writing Gender Neutral
• Can "Since" Ever Mean "Because"?
• Ensuring Subject-Verb Agreement with "One of Those"
• What Is a Collective Noun?
• The Appropriate Time to Use "Nor"
• Very Unique Is Not Very Good! All About Absolute Adjectives
• When Should a Possessive Precede a Present Participle?
• When to Use "Whether or Not"
• The Difference between "Hearty" and "Hardy"
• Deciding between "Over" and "More Than"
• How to Use "Among" Correctly
• The Difference between "Propensity" and "Proclivity"
• Should You Use "Good" or "Well"?
• Can You Start a Sentence with "However"?
• How to Use the Word "Not" and Avoid Double Negatives
• Using "Their" As Singular
• Me vs. Myself: The Explanation of Reflexive Pronouns
• Are You Weakening Your Point with "Indicate"?
• Why Anthropomorphism Can Hurt Your Writing
• Difference between "Lay" and "Lie"
• Choosing between "Among" and "Between"
• Are You Properly Placing "Only" in Your Sentences?
• The Difference between I.E. and E.G.
• Are "Impact," "Irregardless," and "Hopefully" Real Words?
• Differences between "Can" and "May," "Less" and "Fewer," "Hone" and "Home"
• Deciding between "Imply" and "Infer," "Discreet" and "Discrete," "Comprise" and "Compose"
• Choosing between "Anxious" and "Eager," "Adverse" and "Averse," "Pique" and "Peak"
Show All

Punctuation and Numbers

• When to Use a Hyphen
• The Rules for Using an En Dash
• Correct Uses of an Em Dash
• When to Spell Out Numbers In Sentences
• Whether to Express Numbers As Words or Numerals
• Learn the Correct Way to Punctuate Coordinate Adjectives
• Should You Use One or Two Spaces after a Period?
• Rules for Semicolons, Colons, and Dashes
• This is Why Punctuation Matters
• When Do I Need to Use a Comma?
• Everything You Need to Know about How to Use Apostrophes
• Tips to Avoid Run-On Sentences
• Do Quotation Marks Go inside or outside a Period?
• How to Form a Joint or Compound Possessive
• The Definitive Guide to Proper Comma Usage
• To Use or Not to Use the Oxford Comma, That is the Question!
• The Difference between I.E. and E.G.
• Everything You Need to Know about Writing in the Possessive
Show All

Writing Emails

• How to End an Email
• Email Detail We Often Forget
• Determining Email Recipients and Subject Lines
• Understanding How We Use Email

Writing Techniques

• Why the Declaration of Independence Was Persuasive
• How to Select the Right Information to Engage a Reader
• Using Parallel Construction
• How to Write in the Concrete
• The Power of People! The Case for Putting People in Your Writing
• Organization Tricks to Write Faster
• How Brainstorming Speeds up Writing
• Why Knowing about Concrete and Abstract Language Matters
• How and When to Use Quotations
• How to Hook Readers with a Compelling Opening
• 2 Reasons You're Having Writers Block
• Changing the Way We Teach Kids to Write
• The Benefits of Putting People in Your Writing
• Why Not to Modify "Absolutes"
Show All