Read Briefs to Improve Your Legal Writing

Posted on Posted in Legal Writing and Citation, Research Guides

Reading practitioners’ briefs can help you improve your legal writing, especially if you read them with an eye toward specific techniques. When reading briefs for this purpose, look for things like:

  • Persuasive techniques
  • Dealing with bad facts
  • Development of a theme
  • Simple, straightforward writing style
  • Organization and progression of ideas
  • Policy arguments
  • Incorporation of non-legal research, such as medical studies

For help finding briefs, see our research guide Briefs, Motions & Pleadings, Oral Arguments. For more ideas on using briefs to improve your legal writing, see Megan E. Boyd, Legal Writing in the Real World – Using Practitioners’ Briefs to Teach Advanced Legal Writing Strategies, 23 Perspectives: Teaching Legal Res. & Writing 74 (2014). [full text]

 

Share