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Legal writing may be defined as a kind of technical writing. This technical writing is made use of by many legislators, lawyers and judges for expressing their legal duties, rights and investigation. A. Harrison Barnes the CEO of legalauthority.com, a legal jobs portal, says that the legal authority places a great deal of importance on power and authority. The style of writing here is unique, complicated and different from that of the normal writing procedures. The legal citation system has been defined by two major rulebooks. They are: the ALWD Citation Manual: A Professional System of Citation and The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation.

A. Harrison Barnes says that the procedure of legal writing values a particular model and this pattern is different from that of power, influence or authority. The lawyers are required to use and re-use the documents that are written in their legal profession. These re used documents are called templates and less frequently forms. Legal writing can be broadly categorized into two: Legal analysis and Legal drafting. Legal analysis can further be divided into Predictive legal analysis and Persuasive legal analysis.

Legal memorandum can be said to be the most familiar kind of legal analysis. It mainly consists of a letter from the client or his opinion about the system of law. The net result of the legal question is predicted by the legal memorandum by means of analyzing the legal questions and the facts arising out of legal queries. It provides with alternative suggestions, recommendations, and predicts the necessary outcomes.

The persuasive legal analysis tries to put an end to the dispute of the client. The briefs and motions are also submitted to arbitrators, mediators, along with the judges in the law courts. The letter may also be used for persuading the disputes among the opposition parties. The letter is styled very rhetorically.

Legal writing is one of the most important tools in the law jobs, says A. Harrison Barnes. The written words are used for providing information and persuasion. Although it takes a lot of time to master the skills, the better your writing, the more your chances to excel in your career. A. Harrison Barnes points out certain things which if taken care of, can help you to succeed in your career.

The lawyer must ensure that every written word is tailored to suit the purpose of the clients. The legal letters must be able to target the potential readers. For instance, a brief that has been submitted to the court of law must be persuasive and supportive in nature. The memorandum must be able to scrutinize the issues, provide a statement about the current state of affairs, and advocate a suitable course of action.

Make sure that your writing is organized says A. Harrison Barnes. Make use of the graphical illustrations for guiding the reader efficiently. The subject of the whole theme should be incorporated in the introductory part. Make use that you are making use of inter-mediatory phrases like “in addition,” “furthermore,” “moreover” and “however”. To increase your reader’s interest, make sure that you are writing in small paragraphs and adding subtitles to it. See to it that the message you intend to deliver is very clearly stated. Summarize your entire writing a closing paragraph or sentence. The text becomes more comprehensible, if it is well organized.

Your writing can be conceptual, silted, theoretical or even archaic. A. Harrison Barnes stresses that a lawyer must avoid the use of specific legal phrases and terminology. On the contrary the entire effort must be on making it fully comprehensible for the readers. The message intended to convey must be lucid and simple. To illustrate this with a simple example, “I received your letter” is more simple and short rather than the phrase “I am in receipt of your correspondence”.

A. Harrison Barnes stresses that a lawyer, must always make use of action words that will make the entire write up more vibrant, authoritative, influential and attractive. Some simple examples are stated below:

A weak sentence may be like; there was no honesty in the defendant. A better sentence would be like; the defendant was dishonest.

Passive voice is not should be avoided as much as possible. An active voice more efficiently delivers the intended message. This provides clarity in the message, by letting the reader know who actually is acting. For example, instead of using sentences like “a crime was committed,” it is better to say that the “the defendant committed the crime.” Proofreading forms an essential part of legal writing. A. Harrison Barnes says, make sure that you do away with sentences that are irrelevant or have grammatical mistakes. As such mistakes are sure to undermine the integrity of a lawyer.

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