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Short
sentences, phrased with concrete words and images, help readers
grasp and retain ideas. Readers expect sentences to be
structured according to standard English usage rules -- subject,
verb and object order. Sentences that defy those rules cause
most readers to become weary and quit.
Legal
services staff pay particular care to exercise these skills in
writing to its consumers and client community.
Indicators:
Sentences
• Sentences
are short. Most sentences do not exceed 20 words. No sentence
expresses more than one complex thought.
• Sentences
focus on the actor, the action and the object.
• Words are
arranged with care: most sentences are arranged in subject, verb
and object order.
• Modifiers
-- All describing words or phrases are placed near the words
they modify so that the intended meaning is conveyed. The adverb
"only" receives particular care because its placement can
radically change sentence meaning.
• Parallelism --
Grammatically
equal sentence elements are used to express two or more matching
ideas or items in a series e.g., if one clause uses a
verb in the active voice, the other clause should also use the
active voice, not the passive voice or a verbal form ending in
"-ing."
• Effective
emphasis is achieved within sentences by moving from old to new,
short to long. Ideas already stated, referred to, implied,
predictable, less important are expressed at the beginning of a
sentence. The least predictable, most important, most
significant, the information to be emphasized appear at the end
of the sentence. The subject and verb are placed close together
at the beginning of the sentence;
longer elements are at the end of the sentence.
Words
• Words are
familiar and concrete.
• Legalese:
Latinisms, pomposities, bureaucratese, jargon, and word gaffes
(affect for effect) are not used.
Wordiness
• Verbose
word clusters (the fact that) and compound prepositions (with
regard to, prior to, pursuant to) are not used.
• Throat
clearing -- introductory phases such as "it is interesting to
note," "at the outset we must define" -- is not present.
•
Redundancies (surviving widow, free gift, brown in color) are
not present.
• Double
and multiple negatives are avoided, e.g., a "not unblack
dog was chasing a not unsmall rabbit across a not ungreen
field." George Orwell
Verbs
• Active
voice is preferred over passive voice except in limited
circumstances.
• Base
verbs are preferred over nouns created from verbs
(nominalizations), i.e., she assumed (base verb). She
made an assumption (nominalization).
• Strong,
precise verbs carry the load in sentences. Using is, are,
was, were is minimized.
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