Pronouns help writers shorten their sentences and vary their word choices so writing doesn’t seem repetitive. A pronoun is a short, generic word that replaces a noun. It can have one of three jobs:

What difference can three or four letters make? When they form pronouns, these short words can have a big impact. Pronouns are words used in place of other nouns. They reduce repetition, which improves the clarity, pace, and flow of a sentence or paragraph. Without pronouns, sentences would be longer and messier and communication would become more difficult. In a world without pronouns, reading and speaking would be painfully boring. To see the difference pronouns can make, consider these two sentences.

If you confuse the words affect and effect, you’re not alone. These two words are some of the most commonly confused words in the English language! Because they sound alike, it can be even harder to keep them straight.

When we start out as lawyers, we’re so afraid of being caught unprepared that we try to memorize every fact, every detail, and every statute. It seems like the smart thing to do. After all, doesn’t every job posting require “attention to detail”? The problem is that details become our security blanket. When a partner, a judge, or a potential client asks a question, we regurgitate the facts we memorized the night before and rattle off code sections—surely, our knowledge will impress our audience.

Addressing your reader and potential client’s problems entails lending a listening ear and showing genuine empathy. Every problem you encounter has a human and emotional aspect that requires a proper and sensitive approach. Whether it’s a contract dispute over the interpretation of a cessation of business clause, an excused performance under a force majeure clause, or responsibility for undelivered goods, each case is a legal question to you—but never forget that it’s an emotional issue for your client. These situations call for empathy. And that means you must connect with your clients on a more personal level to address their pain points.

What difference can one minute make? It may surprise you to learn that one minute can be the difference between successfully completing two tasks—or fumbling them both. Let’s explore how this theory can help us with the documents we create at work.

If you’re looking for thoughtful content, helpful explanations, and deeper engagement in the professional writing and editing community, with access to writers, editors, strategists, and coaches, LinkedIn is a great place to start. Writing professionals post several times per week sharing content, prompting discussion, sharing new approaches, and challenging old assumptions.

Though we may be hired to interpret and apply the law, our clients rely on our writing skills to accurately capture their intent. It’s irresponsible to discount punctuation rules as pedantic and useless. Lawyers must get three comma rules right:

Even when we’re working in the same building, we rarely interact the people we work with in person and in real time. Now that we’re working from home, we’re relying on email more and more. Aside from a few Zoom conversations, your email writing style and etiquette may be the only thing a senior partner knows of you.

The advice to write short, simple, clear prose isn’t merely preference—it’s also science. The social science behind cognitive load theory and working memory tells us we should simplify legal concepts, make their connections clear, and use shorter words and sentences if we want readers to understand. This is because we have a limited amount of brain power we can use while we intake and process information before everything falls apart. Colloquially, we call this “brain strain.”