Thinking Like a Writer: A Lawyer's Guide to Effective Writing & Editing,  is a different kind of book about legal writing.  It assumes its readers are good writers who have already absorbed most of the usual advice about legal writing.  But they may lack the intellectual framework for "thinking like a writer" with the same incisiveness with which they think like a lawyer.  This book provides that framework.  It focuses on the underlying principles for communicating complicated information clearly and for establishing your credibility with demanding audiences.  As a result, it helps to transform good writers into first-rate ones, and to make them far more efficient and powerful editors of their own writing and of others' drafts.  Its unique approach will benefit supervising lawyers who do more editing than writing, as well as lawyers who do their own drafting.

 

Through many examples and exercises drawn from the writing of practicing lawyers and of judges, Thinking Like A Writer shows you step-by-step how to apply the principles of clarity at every level of a document -- from overall organization to sentence structure -- and how to give your writing a compelling credibility.

 

Chapter 1 From Colorado to Kansas: A Writer's Journey
Chapter 2 The Three Principles of Super-Clarity

 

PART II - CREATING ORGANIZATIONAL CLARITY
Chapter 3 Applying Principle 1: From Logic to Coherence
Chapter 4 Applying Principle 2: The Dangers of Default Organizations
Chapter 5 Applying Principle 3: Visible Chunking

 

PART III - WRITING FOR IMPACT
Chapter 6 Capturing Your Readers
Chapter 7 Writing Effective Introductions: Making Readers Smart, Attentive, and Comfortable

 

PART IV - CREATING "MICRO" CLARITY
Chapter 8 Paragraphs: Focus, Flow, and Emphasis
Chapter 9 Sentences: The Wages of Syntax
Chapter 10 Words: Precision and Brevity

 

PART V - THE NUANCES OF EXCELLENCE
Chapter 11 Style: Grace, Vitality, and Character
Chapter 12 The Art of Persuasion
Chapter 13 Overcoming the Dr. Strangelove Syndrome: Editing Yourself and Others
Chapter 14 Additional Advice for Common Types of Legal Writing: Letters, Memos, Briefs, and Opinions

 

PART VI - BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER
Chapter 15 Editing Examples: Applying the Principles and Techniques

 

APPENDIX
The Principles and Techniques Summarized