Legal Research

"Making Copy: 5 Simple Rules for Becoming a Better Copywriter"

Posted by Lisa Salazar: "I am back on my writing bandwagon: lawyers should leave copywriting to copywriters.

I will never forget the first law firm invitation that I made for a lawyer. We went through at least 20 versions and agonized as to whether to use the words "invite" or "cordially invite." An invitation. An invitation that would be read once. An invitation that would be read once and then thrown away.

Of course, I am the exceptional lawyer who can write good copy. ;)

Why? Because I was trained as a journalist and as a writer long before I ever went to law school. Because of that very experience, I did not do very well in my legal writing class--a badge of honor in my book.

Here are my 5 basic rules for writing good copy:

• Do not write a sentence that is longer than two lines.
• Drop all adverbs...
• Use an active voice...
• Do not use legalese, unnecessary capitalization or Latin...
• Do not use exclamation points...

These are just a few of my rules for writing. If you want to read an excellent book on how to become a good writer, I would suggest Stephen King's On Writing--a splendid how-to book on the craft.

And be patient with yourself. It takes a very long time to write a good, short sentence.

As the famed journalist A.J. Liebling said, "I can write better than anyone who can write faster, and I can write faster than anyone who can write better."

Full text and the active link are available at the source site listed below.

Source: 3 Geeks and a Blog, 8 December 2009

Full post as published by Stark County Law Library Blawg on December 10, 2009 (boomark / email).