Welcome to WordRake!

WordRake is automated editing software designed by legal writing expert Gary Kinder. Now you can get expert editing advice instantly. With one click, WordRake ripples through your document checking for needless words, cumbersome phrases, and legalese. Then WordRake gives context-specific feedback and offers improvements in the familiar track-changes style. You decide which edits to accept or reject. WordRake runs in Microsoft Word and is compatible with all of Word’s features and functions. A one-year license of WordRake is free for all students participating in law journals, mock trial, and moot court competitions. WordRake will be available to all other 2L and 3L students until January 1.

Using WordRake at OU Law

As an OU law student, you have the option to use WordRake as you edit your legal writing in your competition briefs, law review articles, and other coursework.  The goal is to provide you with the guidance to help with clarity and brevity when communicating legal analysis.  Keep in mind that WordRake’s suggestions are just that: suggestions.  It is up to you to carefully consider suggested changes or deletions and decide whether to accept them based on your own editing skills and faculty or editorial guidance.  As powerful a tool as WordRake is, remember that it’s just one layer to a thorough editing process — not a replacement for your own review of other critical self-editing concepts such as formatting rules, use of authority, paragraph structure, citation, and legal argument structure and organization. 

If you have any questions about using WordRake at OU, please contact Kenton Brice, Director of Technology Innovation at kbrice@ou.edu.