St. Thomas Law Review
First Page
53
Document Type
Article
Abstract
For more than thirty years I've spent a lot of time reading bad writing. By bad writing, I mean writing that fails of its essential purpose-so flawed in concept or execution that it can hardly inform, much less persuade. The writing is the sort that lawyers are routinely expected to produce: briefs, judicial opinions, essays dealing with law-related subjects, and the like. What I see, for the most part, is the writing of second- and third-year law students, the vast majority of whom graduate and enter upon a lifetime career as lawyers.' They take with them for tomorrow the writing skills they possess today, and those skills, to put it mildly, are poor. If this experiential diagnosis is accurate, why the ineptness? And can anything be done about it?
Recommended Citation
H P. Southerland,
English as a Second Language - Or Why Lawyers Can't Write,
18
St. Thomas L. Rev.
53
(2005).
Available at:
https://scholarship.stu.edu/stlr/vol18/iss1/4