But don`t give it to a lawyer`s clerk to write down, because they use a legal hand that Satan himself won`t understand. Cervantes 1. Be careful not to quote excessively; Paraphrase whenever possible. New law students sometimes mistakenly believe that they should always quote the words of a judge. After all, according to the reasoning, the judge must know how best to express the law. However, excessive citation is a poor substitute for analysis. Your job as a lawyer is to analyze precedents, not just repeat them. Therefore, your letter should explain to your reader why and how a precedent is important to your client. You cannot fulfill this important interpretive function simply by chaining quotation marks. In addition, the sequence of case citations and secondary sources tends to result in choppy and incoherent text.
It`s usually best to use your own words so that the text you`re writing has a logical progression and consistent style from sentence to sentence. It is not surprising that the authors of these famous words are Justices Harlan, Holmes and Brandeis. Along with Justice Cardozo, Chief Justice Marshall and perhaps a few others, they are considered the legends of American legal history. In persuasive writing, it never hurts to quote a legend. [Simple language] is or should be as accurate and precise as traditional legal drafting. It is much clearer. It`s usually shorter and faster. It is highly preferred by readers. This would significantly improve the image of lawyers. Professor Joseph Kimble, Responding to Simple Language Criticisms If the quote is long, do not use quotation marks; Instead, present it as a quote at the background. However, keep in mind that quotes are most effective when they are short and used sparingly.
If you need to quote something with an error, use sic. Quotation marks are required whenever you specify the exact words spoken or written by someone else. In American English, double quotation marks are used to indicate quotations. Single quotation marks refer to a quote within a quotation: punctuation is a component of writing that people rarely think about or notice, except when it is false. At worst, misused punctuation marks — commas, semicolons, quotation marks, and the like — can confuse the meaning of your sentences and leave your reader confused and frustrated. Even less glaring mistakes, such as a missing or misplaced apostrophe, can make your written work look like carelessness and lack of attention. 3. Name words that have a particular meaning or eloquence. From time to time, we come across a sentence or phrase that is so well written that it would be almost criminal to paraphrase it. Other sentences may have become part of the tradition of legal writing, and to the informed reader, a paraphrase would seem silly. These phrases are rare, but if you find them, feel free to quote them.
They can be particularly effective in the context of a brief or brief being prepared for a court. Sometimes we would lose the effectiveness of the quote if it did not remain autonomous. In this case, the general rule against freestanding quotes should be ignored. Here are a few examples. Use quotation marks only for quotation marks – if the language is particularly strong or needs to be precise. In contrast, indirect quotes summarize or report what someone said. 9. Avoid introducing quotation marks with a colon. Using a colon to introduce a quote is only appropriate if the words following the colon are truly meaningful. Instead, try incorporating part of the quote into its own sentence. (See point two of this section.) Most legal texts are horrible.
Fred Rodell, dean of Yale Law School, before most of us were born, was right when he said, «There are two things wrong with most legal writing. One is his style. The other is its content. It was in a fascinating article, Goodbye to Law Reviews, which should be classified as a reading for all law students. Justice Mark P. Painter, Legal Writing 201 You should also be careful when placing other punctuation marks at the end of quotations. Commas and periods are always enclosed in quotation marks: 6. If you must use block quotation marks, be sure to use indentation and single spaces.
Quotation marks of 50 words or more should be approximately half an inch indented at the left and right margins. They must be entered in a one-space format, and the citation for the quote must be two lines removed from the end of the quote and placed in the original left margin. Do not put such a quote in quotation marks: the reader will know that it is a quotation because you have indented it. However, if there are citations in the blocked citation, use quotes around those internal citations. Here`s an example of a properly blocked quote of 50 words or more. 2. When making a quote, avoid freestanding quotes. As a general rule, when quoting, it is better to incorporate this quote into one`s own sentence than to quote an entire sentence from a case. Note the following. Inertia, incompetence, status, power, cost and risk are an impressive set of motivations for keeping German legal.
Their tenacity should not be underestimated. However, one remark is in order. These motivations have no intellectually or socially acceptable justification; They amount to claims of naked self-interest. Robert W. Benson, Professor of Law, Loyola Law School Explanation: The second example is more desirable because it brings out the substantive point with far fewer words. In addition, over-reliance on citations from older sources can result in a text that seems archaic. 8. When incorporating quoted material into your own sentence, make sure the result is a grammatically correct sentence. If you add someone else`s words to your own to form a sentence, the combined product should be grammatically correct. To determine if the sentence is grammatically correct, briefly ignore the quotation marks and ask yourself if the sentence would be correct if all the words were yours. Otherwise, you`ll either have to rewrite the part of the sentence you created, or delete the quoted material and use a paraphrase. A certain novel begins with the words: «Call me Ishmael»: Do you know which novel it is? Who said, «Absence makes the heart preferred»? 4.
Don`t use quotation marks around artistic terms. An art term is an expression that has become so well accepted and ubiquitous in a particular field that it is no longer considered the property of its original author. These terms also have a meaning familiar to anyone practicing in the fields where they are used. You don`t need to put quotation marks around an artistic term, nor do you need to cite a source, although you may want to include a quote to support the point you`re making. Here are a few examples. Remember the rule of contraction, and your choice should be clear. «You`re» means «you are,» while «your» is the possessive form of «you»: Purdue University`s online writing lab has an excellent section on punctuation of all kinds. It would be a good investment of time to refresh your memory with the explanations and exercises on this site. However, here are brief discussions on some of the most common punctuation errors. During the First World War, Sir Roger Casement was accused of high treason. But the question was: does the law apply to treason abroad? The answer depended on whether or not there was a pair of commas in the corresponding section. The law was so old that it was not clear, but the judges went to the Public Record Office and looked for the old scrolls of parchment of the law, where they found marks that they interpreted as punctuation.
As a result, Sir Roger Casement was almost literally «clinging to a comma». The moral of the story is: don`t neglect punctuation. Dr. Michael Arnheim, Contract Audit The clerk said the office would not be open on Saturday. Finally, one of the most common proofreading errors I see is an open quotation mark without its end partner. 7. Use a comma after «said», «declared», «exclaimed» and similar terms when entering a quotation. In other cases, add the word «it» and don`t use a comma.
It is sometimes difficult, as with the word «inmate» in the second example below, to determine whether it is acceptable to use an introductory term with a comma (such as «said») instead of an introductory term with the word «that» (such as «wrote that»). When in doubt, use the latter option (judged that, wrote that, found that, came to the conclusion that). This is the generally accepted option. Lawyers who use plain language know that not only does it make sense, but it also makes good money. Christopher Balmford, Words and Beyond, Australia However, here are some basic rules for placing punctuation with quotation marks. A quote that appears after a complete sentence should itself be treated as a complete sentence that begins with a capital letter and ends with a period.