Writing Style and Resources

Write Clearly

Effective legislation spells out, specifically and measurably, the incremental steps, actors, enforcement, and exceptions surrounding an aspect of society.

Good legislation will be worded so that it is thorough and direct. Big words, technical words, Latin words, and highly formal sentence structure are not necessary. Be direct and specific, choosing words that convey the correct meaning. Be as clear as possible. For example, do not use clunky terms such as ‘notwithstanding.’ Use 'despite' or 'although' instead for clarity.

Write purposefully and pay attention to words that may seem insignificant, but can have a big impact. According to Deborah Beth Medows, an attorney for the New York Health Department, the word ‘shall’ is the single word that is most often litigated. It can mean ‘must’ but can also be interpreted as ‘may’ or ‘sometimes.’ 'Must always’ creates a better understanding of intent and eliminates room for speculation.

Write so a stranger without experience would know who or what you are talking about. If procedures exist, write step by step in small simple steps.

Write with a professional and positive tone.

Avoid filler words. Filler words include ‘basically’, ‘just’, ‘very’, ‘really’, ‘highly’, ‘needless to say’, ‘for what it's worth’ to name a few. Filler words are meaningless words inserted as a pause or emphasis. Grammarly is a free-mi-um tool that will catch filler words.

It is important to proofread a bill several times. Set it down, walk away, come back to proofread it with a fresher set of eyes. Pay attention to every single word.

Be Specific

Be specific about the purpose of the legislation, to whom it applies, the steps involved, the enforcement methods, and the consequences for non-compliance. Establish any specific exceptions that may exist in a very specific manner. Create a ‘Definitions’ section in the bill where vague terms can be specifically established.

Use as many metrics as possible. Metrics refers to specific measurable numbers. A metric could be written as ‘10 days’ or ‘100 dollars’ etc. Anything that can be counted, quantified, or measured is a metric. Good metrics help to create fair legislation that is easy to follow and enforce.

'Small Business' can be a vague term. Include a definition to establish what constitutes a small business. Think about these two sentences:

  • A small business is defined as a business that does not have very many employees but has a significant annual income.

  • A small business is defined as a business that has under 50 employees and has a gross annual income of fewer than one million dollars.

The second sentence spells out very specifically what constitutes a small business. Using this sentence in an introductory definition will allow the term ‘small business’ to be used throughout the rest of the bill with the full understanding of what constitutes a small business. Again, it is important to pay attention to smaller words. ‘And’ would require that both the number of employees and gross annual income match a certain requirement. If that were changed to ‘or,’ only one of these things would need to be true.

‘Always’ and ‘never’ are fairly easy concepts to understand and apply to any situation. Things that happen ‘sometimes’ require more care in describing when there is an exception to consider.

Spell Checking

Legislation written on Turq.io is saved to an issue through an online form. It is a good practice to pre-write your legislation in a word processing document. Use tools such as spelling and grammar check to increase the quality of your submission. Resources online such as Grammarly can help with quality writing. A web search of ‘writing tools’ or ‘grammar and spelling check’ will yield many free editing tools.

When you are doing research and reading laws that are already on the books, you may encounter legal terms and jargon. Use a dictionary and thesaurus to ensure that you fully understand unfamiliar terms.

Resources

If you would like to dive deeper into legal writing, there is a curated list of 30 free legal writing tools that can be found at https://legalstudiesms.com/learning/free-legal-writing-resources/

Grammarly is a freemium writing tool. It is a browser extension so it only works in browser fields.

Hemmingway App is a spelling and grammar checker that you can copy and paste your writing into for comprehensive spelling and grammar checking.

LibreOffice is a free open-source office suite program that is compatible with Microsoft products.

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