4. Certain Punctuation and Important
Names
Use “control-find” on quotation marks
and parenthesis marks too to make sure
that where there is an open quotation or
parenthesis, there is a closed quotation
or parenthesis. Do the same with apostrophes to make sure your usage is correct.
And last but not least, make sure you’ve
spelled your client’s name and the judge’s
name correctly.12 Add “Judge” or “Justice”
to your list of control-find words to make
sure what comes after it is correct. If your
client’s name is tricky, put in a few different
permutations so you can check them all.
Computer Tip 2—Trim Your Word Flab
with the “Writer’s Diet ™”
A second computer tip to use in your
proofreading is The Writer’s DietTM, a free
online tool created by Dr. Helen Sword.13
Dr. Sword devised a test for the liveliness of
professional writing. She did so by choosing “examples of the liveliest and stodgiest academic writing [she] could find and
extrapolat[ing] the initial values” to create
an algorithm that she then tweaked.14 The
test lets you assess the fitness of your writing and helps you, in Dr. Sword’s words,
“energize your writing and strip unnecessary padding from your prose.”15 The first
step is to run a 100-1000 word sample in
the test and receive your diagnosis from
“Lean” to “Heart Attack” levels of flab in
your writing. Take this example:
Manifestly, the failure of the respondent to timely reply to petitioner’s
written demand for compliance with
the terms of the aforesaid agreement
requiring delivery of the Interface Prototype before August 1 was ample
justification for the application of the
doctrine of anticipatory breach which
operated to free the petitioner to seek
and obtain a source for substitute performance.
This passage is clumsy, hard to follow,
www.vtbar.org
and frustrating for the reader; understanding it requires reading it a few times. Not
surprisingly, this sample received a “Heart
Attack” diagnosis. But consider this sample from Chief Justice Roberts’ (regarded
as one of the nation’s best legal writers16)
opinion in the Affordable Health Care case:
Today we resolve constitutional challenges to two provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act of 2010: the individual mandate,
which requires individuals to purchase a health insurance policy providing a minimum level of coverage; and
the Medicaid expansion, which gives
funds to the States on the condition
that they provide specified health care
to all citizens whose income falls below
a certain threshold. We do not consider whether the Act embodies sound
policies. That judgment is entrusted to
the Nation’s elected leaders. We ask
only whether Congress has the power under the Constitution to enact the
challenged provisions.
In our federal system, the National
Government possesses only limited
powers; the States and the people retain the remainder. Nearly two centuries ago, Chief Justice Marshall observed “the question respecting the
extent of the powers actually granted” to the Federal Government “is
perpetually arising, and will probably
continue to arise, as long as our system shall exist.” McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 316, 405 (1819). In this
case we must again determine whether the Constitution grants Congress
powers it now asserts, but which many
States and individuals believe it does
not possess. Resolving this controversy requires us to examine both the limits of the Government’s power, and
our own limited role in policing those
boundaries.17
This passage is easy to follow, and deservedly earned a “Lean” rating on the Writer’s Diet test. The Writer’s Diet also offers a “complete diagnosis” on your sample, pointing out problems such as “waste
words,” “prepositional podge,” and excess
“noun density,” and offering specific advice for improvement. This online diagnostic has its limitations, of course, but it can
be a good way to test readability in your
writing, so give it a try.
Hard Copy Tips and Tricks
Once you’ve done everything you can
do on the