Legal Writing
Legal Writing
Legal Writing
PARTS OF SPEECH
There are 8 or 9 parts of speech
1. Noun – names for people, places, things/objects, ideas, animals, including substances, qualities, measures
of time or quantity
2. Pronoun – takes the place (a substitute) of a noun, avoids redundancy and monotony
a. Personal
I. Subjective – I, he, she, we, it, they
II. Objective – him, her, them, me
b. Possessive – mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs
c. Reflexive – myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, oneself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves
d. Reciprocal – each other, one another
e. Relative – that, which, who, whose, whom, where, when
f. Demonstrative – this, that, these, those
g. Interrogative – who, what, why, where, when, whatever
h. Indefinite – anything, anybody, anyone, something, somebody, someone, nothing, nobody, none,
no one
Carl and myself ate lunch. --> Incorrect
Mike cooked lunch for Carl and myself. --> Incorrect
3. Adjective – Modify and describes nouns and pronouns (may become nouns and vice versa)
a. Questions adjectives answer:
I. What Kind?
II. Which one?
III. How many?
IV. How much?
b. Used for comparison
I. Degrees of comparison
1. Positive – normal adjective that’s used to describe, not compare.
2. Comparative – used to compare two things (and is often followed by the word
than).
3. Superlative – used to compare three or more things, or to state that something is
the most.
c. Kinds of Adjectives
I. Descriptive – are used to describe nouns and pronouns.
II. Quantitative – describe the quantity of something.
III. demonstrative adjective describes “which” noun or pronoun you’re referring to. These
adjectives include the words:
1. This — Used to refer to a singular noun close to you.
2. That — Used to refer to a singular noun far from you.
3. These — Used to refer to a plural noun close to you.
4. Those — Used to refer to a plural noun far from you.
IV. Possessive – show possession. They describe to whom a thing belongs. Some of the most
common possessive adjectives include:
1. My — Belonging to me
2. His — Belonging to him
3. Her — Belonging to her
4. Their — Belonging to them
5. Your — Belonging to you
6. Our — Belonging to us
V. Interrogative – interrogate, meaning that they ask a question. These adjectives are always
followed by a noun or a pronoun, and are used to form questions. The interrogative
adjectives are:
1. Which — Asks to make a choice between options.
2. What — Asks to make a choice (in general).
3. Whose — Asks who something belongs to.
VI. Distributive – describe specific members out of a group. These adjectives are used to single
out one or more individual items or people. Some of the most common distributive
adjectives include:
1. Each — Every single one of a group (used to speak about group members
individually).
2. Every — Every single one of a group (used to make generalizations).
3. Either — One between a choice of two.
4. Neither — Not one or the other between a choice of two.
5. Any — One or some things out of any number of choices. This is also used when the
choice is irrelevant, like: “it doesn’t matter, I’ll take any of them.”
VII. Articles*
d. Coordinate Adjectives – should be separated by a comma or the word ‘and’, adjectives are said to
be coordinate if they modify the same noun in a sentence.
e. Cumulative Adjectives – can neither be reversed nor separated by the word 'and'
I. The order of adjectives
PARTS OF A SENTENCE
There are 5 main parts of a sentence
1. Modifiers – there are many different types of ways to add additional information to a sentence. All of these
examples are known under the general category of modifiers:
a. Subject – refers to the part of the sentence that tells whom or what the sentence is addressing. The
subject is a noun, pronoun or noun phrase.
I. Simple subject: Kate is a thin girl.
II. Complete subject: Jeffrey's poem about his mother made the class cry.
III. Compound subject: Paul and Tommy joined the soccer team at the same time.
b. Predicate – he verb that tells us what the subject is doing
I. Simple predicate: Harry ate his apple.
II. Complete predicate: The mouse slowly ran towards the food.
III. Compound predicate: She both laughed and cried at the film
c. Phrases – a group of words that cannot stand alone as a sentence, but it can be used to add
something to a sentence.
I. A noun phrase acts as a noun: "the hungry cat" is a noun phrase.
II. An adjective phrase modifies a noun: The child playing hopscotch was happy.
III. An adverb phrase begins with a preposition and acts as an adverb: "On a hot day" from
earlier is an example.
IV. A prepositional phrase is made up of a preposition, its objects, and its modifiers: The house
on the corner was old.
d. Clauses – a group of words which has a subject and a predicate
I. Dependent/Main – "On hot days" is an example of a dependent clause because it could not
stand by itself as a sentence.
II. Independent/Subordinate clauses – "Paul washed the dishes, but he didn't want to." "He
didn't want to" could be a sentence by itself; however, here it is connected to the larger
sentence.
Basic Rule. A singular subject (she, Bill, car) takes a singular verb (is, goes, shines), whereas a plural subject takes a
plural verb.
Example: The list of items is/are on the desk.
1. Rule 1. A subject will come before a phrase beginning with of. This is a key rule for understanding subjects.
The word of is the culprit in many, perhaps most, subject-verb mistakes.
a. Hasty writers, speakers, readers, and listeners might miss the all-too-common mistake in the
following sentence:
Incorrect: A bouquet of yellow roses lend color and fragrance to the room.
Correct: A bouquet of yellow roses lends . . . (bouquet lends, not roses lend)
2. Rule 2. Two singular subjects connected by or, either/or, or neither/nor require a singular verb.
Examples:
My aunt or my uncle is arriving by train today.
Neither Juan nor Carmen is available.
Either Kiana or Casey is helping today with stage decorations.
3. Rule 3. The verb in an or, either/or, or neither/nor sentence agrees with the noun or pronoun closest to it.
Examples:
Neither the plates nor the serving bowl goes on that shelf.
Neither the serving bowl nor the plates go on that shelf.
a. This rule can lead to bumps in the road. For example, if I is one of two (or more) subjects, it could
lead to this odd sentence:
Awkward: Neither she, my friends, nor I am going to the festival.
If possible, it's best to reword such grammatically correct but awkward sentences.
Better:
Neither she, I, nor my friends are going to the festival.
OR
She, my friends, and I are not going to the festival.
4. Rule 4. As a general rule, use a plural verb with two or more subjects when they are connected by and.
Example: A car and a bike are my means of transportation.
But note these exceptions
Exceptions:
Breaking and entering is against the law.
The bed and breakfast was charming.
In those sentences, breaking and entering and bed and breakfast are compound nouns.
5. Rule 5.
a. Rule 5a. Sometimes the subject is separated from the verb by such words as along with, as well as,
besides, not, etc. These words and phrases are not part of the subject. Ignore them and use a
singular verb when the subject is singular.
Examples:
The politician, along with the newsmen, is expected shortly.
Excitement, as well as nervousness, is the cause of her shaking.
b. Rule 5b. Parentheses are not part of the subject.
Example: Joe (and his trusty mutt) was always welcome.
If this seems awkward, try rewriting the sentence.
6. Rule 6. In sentences beginning with here or there, the true subject follows the verb.
Examples:
There are four hurdles to jump.
There is a high hurdle to jump.
Here are the keys.
7. Rule 7. Use a singular verb with distances, periods of time, sums of money, etc., when considered as a unit.
Examples:
Three miles is too far to walk.
Five years is the maximum sentence for that offense.
Ten dollars is a high price to pay.
BUT
Ten dollars (i.e., dollar bills) were scattered on the floor.
8. Rule 8. With words that indicate portions—e.g., a lot, a majority, some, all—Rule 1 given earlier in this
section is reversed, and we are guided by the noun after of. If the noun after of is singular, use a singular
verb. If it is plural, use a plural verb.
Examples:
A lot of the pie has disappeared.
A lot of the pies have disappeared.
A third of the city is unemployed.
A third of the people are unemployed.
All of the pie is gone.
All of the pies are gone.
Some of the pie is missing.
Some of the pies are missing.
9. Rule 9. With collective nouns such as group, jury, family, audience, population, the verb might be singular or
plural, depending on the writer's intent.
Examples:
All of my family has arrived OR have arrived.
Most of the jury is here OR are here.
A third of the population was not in favor OR were not in favor of the bill.
10. Rule 10. The word were replaces was in sentences that express a wish or are contrary to fact:
Example: If Joe were here, you'd be sorry.
***Shouldn't Joe be followed by was, not were, given that Joe is singular? But Joe isn't actually here, so we
say were, not was. The sentence demonstrates the subjunctive mood, which is used to express things that
are hypothetical, wishful, imaginary, or factually contradictory. The subjunctive mood pairs singular subjects
with what we usually think of as plural verbs.
Examples:
I wish it were Friday.
She requested that he raise his hand.
COHERENCE
Coherence in Writing – Coherence is product of many different factors, which combine to make every paragraph,
every sentence, and every phrase contribute to the meaning of the whole piece. Coherence in writing is much more
difficult to sustain than coherent speech simply because writers have no nonverbal clues to inform them if their
message is clear or not. Therefore, writers must make their patterns of coherence much more explicit and much
more carefully planned. Coherence itself is the product of two factors — paragraph unity and sentence cohesion.
1. Paragraph Unity – To achieve paragraph unity, a writer must ensure two things only.
a. First, the paragraph must have a single generalization that serves as the focus of attention, that is, a
topic sentence.
b. Secondly, a writer must control the content of every other sentence in the paragraph's body such
that
I. (a) it contains more specific information than the topic sentence and
II. (b) it maintains the same focus of attention as the topic sentence.
This generalization about paragraph structure holds true for the essay in particular. The two
major exceptions to this formula for paragraph unity are found in fiction (where paragraph
boundaries serve other functions, such as indicating when a new speaker is talking in a
story) and in journalism (where paragraphs are especially short to promote 'visual' ease by
creating white space).
2. Sentence Cohesion – To achieve cohesion, the link of one sentence to the next, consider the following
techniques:
a. Repetition. In sentence B (the second of any two sentences), repeat a word from sentence A.
b. Synonymy. If direct repetition is too obvious, use a synonym of the word you wish to repeat. This
strategy is call 'elegant variation.'
c. Antonymy. Using the 'opposite' word, an antonym, can also create sentence cohesion, since in
language antonyms actually share more elements of meaning than you might imagine.
d. Pro-forms. Use a pronoun, pro-verb, or another pro-form to make explicit reference back to a form
mentioned earlier.
e. Collocation. Use a commonly paired or expected or highly probable word to connect one sentence
to another.
f. Enumeration. Use overt markers of sequence to highlight the connection between ideas. This
system has many advantages: (a) it can link ideas that are otherwise completely unconnected, (b) it
looks formal and distinctive, and (c) it promotes a second method of sentence cohesion, discussed
in (7) below.
g. Parallelism. Repeat a sentence structure. This technique is the oldest, most overlooked, but
probably the most elegant method of creating cohesion.
h. Transitions. Use a conjunction or conjunctive adverb to link sentences with particular logical
relationships.
I. Identity. Indicates sameness. (that is, that is to say, in other words,…)
II. Opposition. Indicates a contrast. (but, yet, however, nevertheless, still, though, although,
whereas, in contrast, rather, ...)
III. Addition. Indicates continuation. (and, too, also, furthermore, moreover, in addition,
besides, in the same way, again, another, similarly, a similar, the same, ...)
IV. Cause and effect. (therefore, so, consequently, as a consequence, thus, as a result, hence, it
follows that, because, since, for, ...)
V. Indefinites. Indicates a logical connection of an unspecified type. (in fact, indeed, now, ...)
VI. Concession. Indicates a willingness to consider the other side. (admittedly, I admit, true, I
grant, of course, naturally, some believe, some people believe, it has been claimed that,
once it was believed, there are those who would say, ...)
VII. Exemplification. Indicates a shift from a more general or abstract idea to a more specific or
concrete idea. (for example, for instance, after all, an illustration of, even, indeed, in fact, it
is true, of course, specifically, to be specific, that is, to illustrate, truly, ...)