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Its: where to put the apostrophe
Not long ago, I spoke to a professional writer who was never taught grammar or punctuation. He told me he writes its or it’s at random, hoping to be right about half the time. He’s not alone. In all the professional writing I review in my writing workshops, that one...
Must a contract term be one sentence?
In a contract drafting workshop last week, we were looking at a 126-word definition of a 3-word phrase. Someone asked, “Is there a rule that a definition has to be just one sentence?” There is no such rule, in English contract law or in life. But it was a sensible...
Permissive language in contracts: can, may, or is entitled to?
An English contract manager asked me the other day about the use of 'can' and 'may' in modernised contracts. He and his US colleagues thought that 'may' seemed to be dominant in the terms they’d been debating, although it was not used consistently even within one set...
Terms of service? Didn’t read
Two contrasting court cases in two weeks show the power of order, structure, signposting, and format, in standard contract terms. In each one, a customer signed up to the terms a business had drawn up to protect itself from disputes. When a dispute came up, guess...
Should writing training be online or face to face?
Which is better, when we have the choice again? Here are some points to help you decide, from our experience of taking interactive group writing training online since March 2020. The choice As I write, face to face interactive writing training in most places must wait...
Win the Oxford Guide to Plain English
I’m sorry for the long silence since my last post. True, I’ve spent the last few months taking my interactive training online, but this post was already overdue before lockdown. Now, I have a copy to give away of the latest edition of the Oxford Guide to Plain...
Clarity for court: Clarity breakfast on 7 November 2019
Our next Clarity breakfast is on Thursday 7 November 2019, from 8.00 to 9.30am in the City of London. The topic is Clarity for court and our speaker is Lady Justice Anne Rafferty, member of the Court of Appeal, former High Court judge and criminal barrister. She...
Setting standards for plain language: Clarity breakfast on 2 October 2019
We write and edit in plain language; computer programs can score our writing for clarity, and a few organisations offer to test or certify documents as clear. But, however much we may agree on what makes a document clear and easy to read, we are each writing or...
Better document structure using Word styles and navigation pane
Good headings or short sentences: which writing habit improves readability more than any other? I think it must be one of them, I just can't decide which. This blog post is for Microsoft Word users who are working on their headings. Start with plenty of good...
Lawyers’ letters in client language
My latest article on writing to clients gives you: - A quick summary of what clients want from their lawyers' letters. - Four suggestions for key techniques to deliver what the clients want. - Examples from client care letters. The article focuses on clients who need...
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