Do you want to improve your legal and business English writing?
If yes, this website will help you to do that. First of all, thank you for realising that your writing skills could be better; indeed, all legal and business English could be better!
If everyone applies plain language principles to their writing, communication would be faster and more efficient, businesses could either save or make money, and you could better use AI to give yourself a future advantage.
That's right, all of those positives come from improving your writing skills.
This website will point you in the right direction and help you to improve your legal and business English writing skills.
Why is traditional legal and business writing not good writing?
Traditional writing is criticised for, among other things:
using words that are very difficult to understand,
using words that are not used today in everyday language,
using complicated structures to communicate ideas,
using very long sentences with sub-clauses in the middle of those sentences,
using too many words to communicate an idea,
using a style of writing called "legalese" which actually stops the reader from reading the text and understanding the text.
These issues all show that traditional writing does not think about the reader. Also, studies show that legal professionals prefer plainer writing and that using traditional writing may make you appear less educated or professional!
Traditional legal and business writing is not good writing for those main reasons, but there are many more!
What is good legal writing?
Good legal writing is based on plain English communication. The doctrine on legal English writing has been clear about this for decades. If you look at the articles and books written by Prof. Wydick, Prof. Kimble, Bryan Garner and other leading commentators on how to improve your legal English writing, all recommend that legal writing should be plain and clear.
Today, ISO 24495 sets out the definition of plain communication:
"Plain language is communication that puts readers first. It considers:
what readers want and need to know;
readers’ level of interest, expertise and literacy skills;
the context in which readers will use the document.
Plain language ensures readers can find what they need, understand it and use it. Thus, plain language focuses on how successfully readers can use the document rather than on mechanical measures such as readability formulas."
If you write following those principles, you will be closer to writing good business and legal English writing.
How can you improve your legal writing?
You can improve your legal writing skills by doing two things:
by using plain language writing techniques in your writing, and
by focusing on:
what your audience wants to know, not what you want to say,
what your audience's comprehension skills may be, not how skilful your writing can be, and
how your audience will use the writing.
Sounds simple, doesn't it? It is easy to find out what plain language writing techniques are. My YT channel @writtenlegalenglish has lots of videos on this. There are also numerous resources online but, as a starting point, I recommend reading Prof. Wydick's paper " Plain English for Lawyers" - published in 1978 but still relevant today - which you can download for free here. You can find many other fantastic resources online; just google "plain English writing techniques".
Why is producing a successful piece of writing so difficult?
If the resources to improve your writing are available, why is it so difficult to improve your writing? It's because you have to learn to be the editor of your writing and edit your writing to make sure you follow plain language principles. That means you have to learn what the plain language principles are and then learn how to identify the issues in your writing that need to be changed to follow plain language principles. This takes awareness, time and practice.
Successful authors have a team of people they work with, e.g. editors, copy-editors, and proofreaders. All these people do different things but all have the same aim - to produce the best possible text they can. The author's initial manuscript is the starting point. The finished product is a combination of multiple efforts.
Go to a webpage of a market-leading brand. The text on that webpage is likely the result of a team's work - a team of experts in their fields - copywriters, UX experts, CX experts, and even lawyers.
You, to be an effective legal writer, will have to do all that by yourself. This means learning many editing skills. But the hardest skill is being able to step away from your writing and assess it objectively against the three elements of the definition of plain language above:
Is my writing really what the reader wants and needs?
Does my writing match the ability of the reader to read it and understand it?
Have I written a document that the reader can actually use?
It sounds easy but without knowing how to do the above, how can you effectively edit your writing and assess if it will produce the result you want, that is, be a successful piece of writing?
Fighting trends to set the trend?
Within law and business, you might face problems caused by other people. For example, your supervisor may ask you to write in the traditional, old-fashioned way.
That's right - despite leading firms, institutions, academic papers, statutory law and legal organisations promoting and using plain language, some bosses believe that writing should be Shakespearian and difficult to understand. They may think that your writing should be complex to reflect your experience.
Despite studies and practice showing exactly the opposite to be true, they may even change your plain language writing or force you to write using traditional writing techniques.
The only way to combat this is to be extremely patient and have the evidence available to support plain language legal writing. This website will help you with that.
How can WrittenLegalEnglish.com help you?
On my website and YT channel @writtenlegalenglish, you'll find resources to read to help you improve your legal writing.
On the WrittenLegalEnglish YT channel, I'll post videos to communicate key points. Already on YT, you will find my previous videos that will talk you through the basics of how to improve your plain English legal writing.
Coming soon on YT, there will be the chance to work together on plain language comments through live broadcasts and online meetings. When that is ready to start, I'll let you know!