Legal writing can be a struggle because we’re expected to be fast and perfect. This creates a high-pressure situation where we’re sure to doubt ourselves. Fear, perfectionism, self-doubt, and external pressure are the main psychological ingredients for writer’s block. So how can we overcome writer’s block and get that first draft on paper?

At the end of the school year, we’re thinking about gifts for soon-to-be graduates. The ideal gift will set a graduate up for success and provide lasting value.

While “legalese” may be the punchline for jokes about bad writing, the problem isn’t confined to the legal profession. Bad business writing is widespread and costs American companies an estimated $1.2 trillion per year. That may be a conservative estimate: a 2023 survey estimates that ineffective communication is costing American businesses $2 trillion each year. Let’s look at how unsatisfactory writing has affected businesses and why we should improve our writing skills.

Editing is a difficult task with many interconnected pieces. It requires that we know and apply writing, grammar, and style principles to complex topics. And some writing professors have found that even if you have vast knowledge of grammar, syntax, and style, you’ll still need help to apply that knowledge and thoroughly edit a piece of writing. Otherwise, you’ll either get overwhelmed with too much information or you won’t be able to remember enough to put the rules into practice while editing.

Because presenting our work in a clear and pleasing manner is so important, effective legal writers devote 35% of their time in any legal writing task to revising, editing, proofreading, and otherwise polishing the document.

Editing is the process of improving content, clarity, structure, and substance. It involves checking the content of the text to ensure that the ideas are expressed clearly and logically, and form a coherent and meaningful whole. It should be the first task you undertake after you have a fairly complete document. (Save the proofreading for later.) The purpose of editing is to make your document better. Here’s what to check:

Document creation consumes a significant portion of every lawyer’s time regardless of practice area—up to 60% of lawyer time is spent drafting and polishing documents. Even after the words are written, proofreading and editing can drag on for hours—and sometimes errors still slip through the cracks.

Less time spent revising and refining documents translates to more time spent on high-value, substantive work. Here are 10 strategies to make proofreading and editing your legal documents more effective.

Writing isn’t a linear process with a specific set of tools that a writer must use to succeed. It’s more like the messy, disjointed process of putting together a puzzle, where you don’t find the missing pieces until the end. Only after it has taken shape do you see it more clearly. But just because the act of writing is non-linear, doesn’t mean that the process has to be unstructured.

We sat down with the newest member of the WordRake team, Ivy B. Grey, after completing her first month on the job. Ivy joined us in early November as our Director of Business Strategy. A legal tech entrepreneur and former lawyer, Ivy brings a wealth of knowledge to the WordRake team, and we’re excited to sit down with her and hear her progress and vision for the future.

Advice to improve your legal writing can sound flippant. How often have you heard “rules” like these?