Legal Writing

Sound Too Erudite & Appear Too Simple

Some very good advice to attorney-authors who want to be read and respected comes from Daniel Oppenheimer, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Princeton.

In his paper — “Consequences of erudite vernacular utilized irrespective of necessity: problems with using long words needlessly” published in the journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology — Dr. Oppenheimer reiterates what few attorney-authors can believe: readers consistently judge the writer who uses plain, clear language as more intelligent than the writer who arranges obscure terms in convoluted constructions.

And there’s some good advice for law firms that use Arial for body copy: readers judge text set in that face as being written by less intelligent authors.

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Professor Joseph Kimble — professor of law at the Thomas M. Cooley Law School — offers similar advice, specifically addressing the benefits to lawyers of writing for readers.

Full post as published by Set in Style on June 04, 2009 (boomark / email).