Reviews (2)

Pure Torture
The problem with this book is that she is constantly introducing what I call "specialty paragraphs" with little or no explanation or reason for their existence.Instead of telling you how to write a paper, she tells you all kinds of "specialty paragraphs" that you must include in your paper.
This is a really great book
THEY are forcing me to read this book for my first year lawyering process class in law school.It really is a good book.It's nuts and bolts of "doing" law, including reading, writing, analyzing.I read a lot of those "buy this book and you won't be scared of law school" books, and with few exceptions they were disappointing.I am so happy to finally be into the meat of law school.While I would not recommend buying this book to the casual reader, it would be worth a glance if you are starting, or considering starting law school.Support your local library!Read more

Subjects:  1. Briefs    2. Law    3. Legal Reference / Law Profession    4. Legal Writing    5. Legal composition    6. Reference    7. United States   

Reviews (1)

Best legal English book on the market
This is by far the best book on legal English available.Haigh cuts through the pretensions of legal language and renders comprehensible all of those terms that lawyers use to drive ordinary people crazy.Written in a clean, entertaining and unpretentious style, this book will greatly benefit anyone who is ever forced to read a contract or any other legal document. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Dictionaries & Terminology    2. General    3. Law    4. Legal Reference / Law Profession    5. Legal Writing    6. English    7. English Law    8. Language for specific purposes    9. Law / General   

Subjects:  1. Appellate procedure    2. Briefs    3. Law    4. Legal Writing    5. Oral pleading    6. United States   

Subjects:  1. Law    2. Legal Reference / Law Profession    3. Legal Writing    4. Research   

Reviews (1)

This is a "must have" book!
I have several of Terri's books, including the earlier edition of this one.But with this edition, Terri has added a CD-Rom that really makes a difference.There are a lot of really good legal writing books out there, but I think Terri's are exemplary.For anyone who is interested in legal writing or who wants to improve their writing skills, buy this book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Language    2. Law    3. Legal Reference / Law Profession    4. Legal Writing    5. Legal composition    6. United States    7. Language teaching & learning material & coursework    8. Teaching of a specific subject   

Subjects:  1. 1939-    2. Civil Procedure    3. General Services Administratio    4. Law    5. Law and art    6. Legal Reference / Law Profession    7. Legal Writing    8. New York    9. New York (State)    10. Planning    11. Public sculpture    12. Serra, Richard,    13. Sociology    14. Trials, litigation, etc    15. United States    16. Architecture / Planning    17. The Arts   

Reviews (6)

Don't take the road without this map
I teach undergraduates, many of whom want to be law students.Sometimes I help them get started on legal writing.
Not Just for Law Students
If you're writing a law review comment, Eugene Volokh's slim volume "Academic Legal Writing" is indispensible.However, anyone who wants to learn how to write clearly and how to cut the fat from their prose will benefit tremendously from the book as well.Especially good are the sections where Volokh takes you step-by-step through the editing process, turning a flabby piece of writing into economical, muscular prose.His appendix of words to avoid (eschew "eschew") is also excellent.So don't be fooled by the title.Good writing is good writing, in the legal academy and elsewhere.This is a book about good writing in general, and a terrific one at that.

Every 1L should own a copy
This book is one of the most useful tools you can buy to help you succeed in law school. Sure, there are plenty of study guides and study aids out there for law school - teaching you the ins-and-outs of proximate causation, useless stuff like the meaning of "possibility of reverter," and how to say if a statement is hearsay.But success in law school involves much more than getting good grades in Contracts, Property, or Evidence.The key to distinguish yourself in law school (and immediately after) is your writing ability:Are you on law review?Have you written a note/article worthy of being published?Do you have a stellar writing sample for that clerkship application?Until this book, there was not a practical guide teaching academic legal writing. Every 1L should buy this book and read it before they attempt to take a seminar class or write a law review note. It will make a difference.
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Subjects:  1. Language    2. Law    3. Legal Reference / Law Profession    4. Legal Writing    5. Legal composition    6. United States    7. Writing & editing guides   

Reviews (1)

Well Worth the Money
Read this book, there is a lot of good advice in here. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Authors and publishers    2. Intellectual Property - General    3. Law    4. Legal Reference / Law Profession    5. Legal Writing    6. Practical Guides    7. Press law    8. Reference    9. United States   

Reviews (3)

Excellent starting point - signed, William Shakespeare
I agree with the other two reviewers that this work is not a comprehensive treatise on the subject of detecting forgery. However, it does give beginners (like me) a good place to start. It is clearly written and broad (if not deep) in coverage.I would call this book "workmanlike" and "solid." If I were a writer of mystery novels, this would be a good reference for this area of criminal(?) activity. The small section on the autopen especially intrigued me (hint: don't buy John F. Kennedy autographed documents). The bibliography in the back is its greatest asset if you want to pursue the topic of forgery to a deeper level. Our interlibrary loan people are going to be hustling for years as I track down some of the sources Nickell cites in this book.

Wants to be deep but is not
Joe Nickell is an excellent researcher and has found many interesting aspects of document examination to write about.He is not, however, a document examiner.As a result he includes an interesting history but heonly mentions the new techniques. The book is recommended for those whowant to know what goes on in the broad field of forensic documentexamination but is far short of being a guide for detecting forgery.

Detecting Forgery
This book is a fairly in depth study into the history and current practice of forensic study of written materials.It is a bit broad for modern use of law enforcement investigations but has some good information. For theprice and information provided it's a good investment. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Criminology    2. Forensic Science    3. Identification    4. Law    5. Legal Reference / Law Profession    6. Legal Writing    7. Legal documents    8. Signatures (Writing)    9. Sociology    10. Writing    11. Criminal investigation & detection    12. Hoaxes & deceptions   

Subjects:  1. Law    2. Legal Profession    3. Legal Reference / Law Profession    4. Legal Writing    5. Legal composition   

Subjects:  1. Bankruptcy    2. Bankruptcy & Insolvency    3. Bankruptcy lawyers    4. Forms    5. Law    6. Legal Reference / Law Profession    7. Legal Writing    8. Records and correspondence    9. Trial practice    10. United States    11. Law / Bankruptcy   

Subjects:  1. Law    2. Legal Education    3. Legal Writing    4. Practical Guides   

Subjects:  1. Cross-cultural studies    2. Law    3. Legal Reference / Law Profession    4. Legal Writing    5. Legal composition    6. Methodology    7. Study and teaching    8. United States   

Subjects:  1. Law    2. Legal Reference / Law Profession    3. Legal Writing   

Subjects:  1. Briefs    2. Language    3. Law    4. Legal Education    5. Legal Reference / Law Profession    6. Legal Writing    7. Legal composition    8. Practical Guides    9. United States   

Reviews (3)

Light, and not even fluffy
This book was a bit of a disappointment.The content itself is light -- if you don't already understand one of the points, there often isn't enough there to help you "get it".The book also flits back and forth between being targeted at business writing and at legal writing, but it never does the transition well, and doesn't really do either one justice.
General and "light."
First, I can't recommend this book for lawyers--even though the title suggests that it is aimed partly at legal writing. There is simply not enough concrete legal-writing advice to make the book worthwhile for a lawyer. How to effectively use words in business and legal writing
In Working With Words In Business And Legal Writing, examples on how to effectively use words in business and legal writing provides basic keys gained from the author's writing and editing workshops, tackling a host of business writing problems ranging from jargon and wordiness to passive voice and transitional phrases. A special section on email etiquette and usage completes this invaluable guide. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business / Economics / Finance    2. Business Writing    3. General    4. Legal Writing    5. Legal composition    6. Reference    7. Writing Skills    8. Business communication & presentation    9. Writing & editing guides   

Subjects:  1. Law    2. Legal Reference / Law Profession    3. Legal Writing    4. Legal composition    5. Legal research    6. Research    7. United States   

Reviews (2)

This is the book for you if you practice law!
"Expert Legal Writing" is exactly what the cover proclaims; a book to help you become the best legal writer you can become. Every lawyer could use the author's advice to improve their own writing and to helpmentor associates or colleagues.The book covers the basics:1) writinglike a lawyer, 2) overcoming writer's block, 3) managing sentencestructure(s), 4) handling punctuation (including common myths), and 5)othervaluable foundational writing tools.This book also offers extremelyhelpful advice on legal organizations and deductive reasoning.Short (191pages), this book can provide the quick assistance you need when you arepuzzled (overwhelmed or just stuck) on how to write the very best legalargument.

How to write Law the correct way
"Expert Legal Writing" is a fairly rounded yet in depth guide on how to write legal documents. It has all the key elements which would be expected in such a book; such as how to do it, how long should the documentbe etc. It lends itself to being a little boring but the tutorial typemanner of the book is a hard aspect to make entertaining. I enjoyed thebook not so much for what it told me about law but more so for the fact itshowed me how to prepare my very own legal documents. This is a great bookfor people interested in preparing quality homemade legal documents. Thereason I gave it such a generous 4/5 stars was because in my case it taughtme a lot of valuable information on a subject I was fairly interested in(Law and Legal Documentation). I myself have a few other books followingthe same line but "Expert Legal Writing" is definitely the mostinformative and intuitive book. Overall an excellent book if you have anyinterest in learning the know how's of legal document writing. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. General    2. Language    3. Law    4. Legal Writing    5. Legal composition    6. Reference    7. United States    8. Law / Legal Writing    9. Legal skills & practice    10. Writing & editing guides   

Reviews (2)

The best advanced legal writing textbook on the market
This textbook has completely revolutionized my teaching and my students' comprehension of peruasion as an advocacy tool. I agree with the other reviewer that this book is scholarly, but I think that any practicing attorney who takes the time to read it will see an almost immediate benefit in their lawyering skills. The trick to reading this book is to actually read it. You can't skim it. The way that I went through it was with a partner (a senior research student). We met weekly over coffee and discussed a chapter. That provided the incentive to read a chapter/week, which is a good pace. If an attorney is going to do that, I suggest calling Aspen and getting a copy of the teacher's manual. That is a great resource, complete with exercise answers and even with suggestions "just do this exercise" if you aren't doing them for grades. Just reading the exercise answers really helps.
Thoughtful and deep
This is the most thoughtful book on persuasive writing I've ever read. It approaches the subject with scholarly exuberance. It covers many fine points that are often missing from texts on persuasive legal writing: ethical persuasion, rhetoric, polish. But to the extent that it is scholarly and is a text for an advanced legal writing class in law school, it will probably seem a little too much for the practicing lawyer. Only the most dedicated appellate specialist will find it useful, I predict. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Language    2. Law    3. Legal Reference / Law Profession    4. Legal Writing    5. Legal composition    6. Language teaching & learning material & coursework    7. Legal skills & practice    8. Writing & editing guides