{"id":228,"date":"2014-03-14T16:42:31","date_gmt":"2014-03-14T15:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/188.116.53.156\/?p=228"},"modified":"2014-03-14T16:42:31","modified_gmt":"2014-03-14T15:42:31","slug":"garner-the-plain-english-guru","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/85.204.27.183\/?p=228","title":{"rendered":"Garner the Plain English Guru"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><ins cite=\"mailto:Aleksandra\" datetime=\"2013-11-05T17:28\">In <\/ins><\/span><span style=\"color: #008080;\"><i><ins cite=\"mailto:Aleksandra\" datetime=\"2013-11-05T17:27\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Legal Writing in Plain English. A Text with Exercises<\/span> <\/ins><\/i><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Garner (2001) draws up a comprehensive list of principles for plain English writing including legal writing, analytical and persuasive writing, legal drafting, document design and continued improvement. The exercises accompanying the book can be accessed on <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/press-pubs.uchicago.edu\/garner\/\"><span style=\"color: #5588aa;\">http:\/\/press-pubs.uchicago.edu\/garner\/<\/span><\/a><span style=\"color: #000000;\">. All these exercises are based on authentic excerpts of legal writing which are used as a basis for paraphrasing, redrafting and editing in plain English.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman;\">Most of these principles help develop the transferable abilities typical of writing which might constitute the scaffolding for the future development of the writing skill irrespective of the purpose. Plain English is considered the equivalent of good English writing. Therefore, the guidelines for writing in plain English should be included in each writing course, since they comprise the rules for producing well structured, comprehensible and concise texts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman;\">According to Garner (2001) the skills which law students and graduates need to develop if they wish to draft texts in plain English include:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">1<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">. Planning: <\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">using a nonlinear, whirlybird (i.e. resembling the mind map) approach is recommended for lawyers;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">arranging the material in a logical sequence, e.g. using chronology when presenting facts;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">dividing the documents into sections, and sections into smaller parts;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">adding headings for the sections and subsections.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">2. Paragraphing and organizing writing:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">beginning each paragraph with a topic sentence;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">linking paragraphs and signposting within paragraphs;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">limiting the length of paragraphs to 3-8 sentences\/150 words;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">knowing the reader \u2013 an ordinary person and not a sophisticated lawyer;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">applying correct punctuation.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">3. Phrasing and paraphrasing (legalese into plain English):<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">avoiding verbosity; reducing the average length of a sentence to 20 words;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">relying on S-V-O word order;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">favouring active over passive voice;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">creating lists with parallel phrasing for parallel ideas;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">avoiding multiple negatives;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">understanding legalese but replacing it with plain English alternatives, e.g. \u201chereinafter Seller\u201d with \u201cthe Seller\u201d, \u201cprior to\u201d with \u201cbefore\u201d, \u201cin the event that\u201d with \u201cif\u201d;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">minimizing the use of \u201eto be\u201d, e.g. court is in agreement, fines are dependent, judge is of the opinion\u2026;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">avoiding nouns created from verbs, e.g. conduct an examination of, make provision for, take into consideration\u2026;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">shortening wordy phrases, e.g. \u201ca number of\u201d to \u201cmany\u201d, \u201cat the time when\u201d to \u201cwhen\u201d, \u201csubsequent to\u201d to \u201cafter\u201d, \u201cthe majority of\u201d to \u201cmost\u201d.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Legal Writing in Plain English. A Text with Exercises Garner (2001) draws up a comprehensive list of principles for plain English writing including legal writing, analytical and persuasive writing, legal drafting, document design and continued improvement. The exercises accompanying the book can be accessed on http:\/\/press-pubs.uchicago.edu\/garner\/. All these exercises are based on authentic excerpts &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/85.204.27.183\/?p=228\" class=\"more-link\">Czytaj dalej<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> \u201eGarner the Plain English Guru\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/85.204.27.183\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/85.204.27.183\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/85.204.27.183\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/85.204.27.183\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/85.204.27.183\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/85.204.27.183\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/85.204.27.183\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/85.204.27.183\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/85.204.27.183\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}