Legal Writing: Form & Function.

Jane N. Richmond National Institute for Trial Advocacy www.nita.org 279 pp., $59.95

This is a solid book. I mean that in the most literal sense: Hardbound with a stitched binding, the book is physically sturdy and will withstand the demands of frequent use. More to the point, the content is sound, informative, and accessible.

This comprehensive legal-writing manual is for practitioners who are serious about improving their persuasive-writing skills. More than a style manual or grammar primer, this practical book packs a legal-writing refresher course into one slim volume. In seven chapters, author Jane Richmond addresses a broad range of subjects: style, persuasion, writing with flair, grammar, punctuation, the writing process, and paragraph structure.

Richmond approaches her task as a legal-writing professional. Though not an attorney, she directs the writing program at Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, a corporate law firm with offices in several cities around the country. After years of working with lawyers, she knows how they write and where they stumble. She has focused Legal Writing: Form & Function accordingly.

In the first chapter, which covers style, Richmond begins with a discussion of sentence structure. She devotes six of nine subsections to the arch-nemesis of clear legal writing: long sentences. Her premise is simple: "Long, convoluted sentences make legal writing hard to understand." If you know this is your problem, Richmond's thorough treatment of the subject will provide specific suggestions for reform.

To tackle this problem, she introduces readers to some of the prime offenders: long sentences with compound predicates, long sentences with series, and long sentences with quotes. For each problem, she provides a rule, models of poorly written and well-written sentences, an analysis of the sentences, and short "do try this at home" exercises, complete with answers. This format is repeated throughout the book.

If you plan to use this book, be fore-warned: Richmond means business. She expects readers to participate fully in the process of improving their writing. The book provides some quick fixes for common writing ailments, but its real goal is to educate for the long haul. Thus, the heart of the book is devoted to demonstrating, step by step, how to move from problem to solution.

To follow the progression from obscure to clear, you need to set aside time and attention to consider Richmond's analysis of writing samples. Sometimes these explanations are brief: "`Paucity' ... is unnecessarily formal. Replace `a paucity of' with `few.'"

In other sections, the reader is asked to work harder. In Chapter Six, for example, Richmond compares several drafts of a passage from an appellate brief. This behind-the-scenes look at the writing process is valuable, but only if you decide to follow it through.

The author culled the book's examples from actual legal documents. This is not unusual in a legal-writing text, but here it results in some heavy-handed illustrations. Consider the sentence Richmond chose to demonstrate the appropriate use of "since": "The `obsolete doctrine' does not apply to the Franchise Ordinance since it is a contract, not a statute." I like the use of sample sentences as illustrations, but the book would be stronger overall if Richmond had used simpler models.

Like many repair manuals, this one requires self-diagnosis. That will be difficult if you sense that you could write better but do not know specifically where to begin. The detailed table of contents and comprehensive index should help.

Richmond respects her readers enough to use terminology that any English teacher--but not every attorney--would find familiar. If you haven't thought about gerunds, dangling participles, and subjunctives since high school, remain calm; the book's glossary provides clear definitions of these terms.

The strength of Legal Writing: Form & Function lies in its nuts-and-bolts coverage of grammar, punctuation, and paragraph structure. If you need a book that will help improve your writing by showing you how to clean up your prose--and you are willing to take the time--this no-nonsense guide should help.

Susan C. Wawrose is a professor of legal research and writing at the University of Dayton School of Law.