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We all now know that using but
and and to begin (some) sentences is the mark
of good writing (Rule 18). Always use but
to begin a sentence instead of the more
difficult however. Examples abound - just
pick any author you believe is good and look.
But I always like new ones.
Reader Thomas Irvin, a law
student at Case-Western, sent this one: But
in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate - we
cannot consecrate - we cannot hallow - this
ground. Can't get much better than that.
Irwin also sent a great
example of why we need to hyphenate compound
adjectives such as common-law rule, public-policy
exception, and the like (Rule 22). In a
criminal-law textbook, he found this gem:
Indigent defendants are entitled to court
appointed attorneys. But if they are broke,
it wouldn't be much of a date. They are entitled
to court-appointed attorneys, not to
court their appointed attorneys.
English to
Latin to French
In previous columns, and in
one decision (Kohlbrand v. Ranieri, 159 Ohio
App.3d 140, 823 N.E.2d 76), I've talked about
the use of two words for one - free and clear,
null and void, and the like - which
resulted from lawyers' trying to make writing
intelligible to both French-speaking and
English-speaking people in England after the
Norman Conquest.
But Latin snuck in there
also. Partly this was because
"educated" people knew Latin, and
partly because English was disfavored after the
Conquest. The Normans were French, so they
continued to speak that language after the
Conquest - and they were the rulers, the elite.
Additionally they were accustomed to writing in
Latin, so they used that frequently in place of
English.
Gradually, French became the
language of the law. But some English, and much
Latin, stayed. That's how we get rest (English),
residue (Latin), and remainder (French). Have
you ever had a client come into your office and
say, "I want the rest of my estate to go to
my spouse, the residue to my daughter, and the
remainder to my son?" Are they three
things? Of course not; they are one thing
described by three words. Any attempt to
distinguish different meanings from the couplets
and triplets should be met with the unassailable
argument that they mean, and always were meant
to mean, the exact same thing. And considering
it's been more than 700+ years since any
possible utility in has evaporated, we should
stop using them. Now.
The French influence also
gave us lessor/lessee, vendor/vendee and
the like. Because of French word order, we have
backwards word pairs such as attorney
general, accounts payable, letters testamentary and
court marshal.
For a fascinating (at least
to me) explanation of some of how we got into
the mess of bad legal writing, I suggest reading
Peter Tiersma's Legal Language (Chicago,
1999).
Readability
I always show the readability
scores for the column (Rule 16-17). Statistics
for this column: 16 words per sentence, 6%
passive voice, and grade level 9.3.
____________________________________
Mark
Painter has served as
a judge on the Ohio First District Court of Appeals
for 11 years, after 13 years on the Hamilton County
Municipal Court. He has taught as an Adjunct Professor
at the University of Cincinnati College of Law since
1990. Judge Painter is
the author of five books, including The Legal Writer:
40 Rules for the Art of Legal Writing. The third
edition of that book was published in 2005. The rules
cited in this column are from that book, and it is
available from http://books.lawyersweekly.com.
Judge Painter has
given dozens of seminars on legal writing. Contact him
through his website, www.judgepainter.org.
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