I thought I would “break” in my blog with an easy, practical, tip: Use the “nonbreaking space” symbol to prevent citations from being broken up across lines of text.
Here is the problem. Proper citation form requires you to place a space after a “§” and the number of the section: like § 1332, not §1332. Bluebook, R. 6.2(c). But if you use a regular space to separate them, Word treats the section symbol and the section number as two separate words. So if the section symbol appears at the end of a line of text, the number will appear on the next line of text.
The "nonbreaking space" solves this problem. It "sticks" the section symbol to the section number and prevents them from being separated. There are two ways of inserting it.
The hard way is to use the menus: select insert-->symbol, select the "Special Characters" tab, and then select the "Nonbreaking Space" item. The space looks like any other space, but will keep the § with the reference. (If you use the "Show ¶" option, the space will appear as a little circle rather than a dot.)
The far better way to do this is to use the keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+Space. Every lawyer, paralegal, and legal secretary should know this key combination by heart. Yet every day, I see finished legal documents with a "¶" or "§" separated from the number reference. It looks sloppy and unprofessional. And now you have no excuse . . .
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Word up!
Welcome to “Word of Law,” my legal-writing blog. This inaugural post explains the blog’s scope and intended purpose.
Why write another legal-writing blog?
Honestly, because I want to. I enjoy writing, I enjoy tinkering with the word processor, and thought it would be fun to have an audience for my ruminations--even if it only is my future self looking back on old posts. I don’t get paid for this, and I do it at the expense of other interests. As soon as it becomes a chore, I will stop.
Why should I listen to you?
I probably draft a hundred briefs a year--ranging from 3-4 pagers to full-blown appellate briefs. I read three times that many. So I have had the chance to make just about every screw-up imaginable in a brief. For those few errors that I have not personally committed, I have seen them countless time in others’ briefs.
This has given me both gray hair and experience. I have not figured out a magical way to write the perfect brief, but I know the myriad ways that legal writing can go wrong. And I even have some ideas about what makes for a good brief or memo.
But don’t take my word for it. Read the posts, try out the ideas, and see if they work for you. If they don’t, then move along. It will not offend me.
For whom is the blog intended?
This blog is intended to be collection of practical—and non-obvious—observations about drafting briefs and memos. My target audience is a first- or second-year civil-litigation associate. This will be the image I conjure up in my head when drafting posts. I want it to be the sort of resource to which I would have turned when I was a beginning lawyer.
That said, most of the posts will be relevant and accessible to other lawyers, to paralegals, to legal secretaries, and even to persons outside the field. You needn’t have a bar number to view the posts.
Who are you?
I am a junior partner at LeClairRyan, a mid- to large-sized firm based in Richmond, Virginia. My practice area focuses on dispositive motions and appellate work. I do a LOT of writing, for courts all over the country.
I live in Roanoke, which is a mid-sized city along the Blue Ridge in western (not West!) Virginia. I have a wife and four kids. I have wide-ranging interests, including astronomy, photography, history, biology, philosophy, and origami. I do a LOT of reading.
Ha Ha! I caught you making a grammatical error! And you’re “Mr. Word of Law”!
Let me get this one out of the way early. As my wife constantly reminds me, I do not have perfect grammar. I am not a perfect writer. And I probably will violate every usage/grammar/style precept that I advocate in these posts, even in the very posts that describe them. Feel free to remind me of this—but do so diplomatically, please. Just because I am writing about writing, don’t expect the writing to be prefect.
Why write another legal-writing blog?
Honestly, because I want to. I enjoy writing, I enjoy tinkering with the word processor, and thought it would be fun to have an audience for my ruminations--even if it only is my future self looking back on old posts. I don’t get paid for this, and I do it at the expense of other interests. As soon as it becomes a chore, I will stop.
Why should I listen to you?
I probably draft a hundred briefs a year--ranging from 3-4 pagers to full-blown appellate briefs. I read three times that many. So I have had the chance to make just about every screw-up imaginable in a brief. For those few errors that I have not personally committed, I have seen them countless time in others’ briefs.
This has given me both gray hair and experience. I have not figured out a magical way to write the perfect brief, but I know the myriad ways that legal writing can go wrong. And I even have some ideas about what makes for a good brief or memo.
But don’t take my word for it. Read the posts, try out the ideas, and see if they work for you. If they don’t, then move along. It will not offend me.
For whom is the blog intended?
This blog is intended to be collection of practical—and non-obvious—observations about drafting briefs and memos. My target audience is a first- or second-year civil-litigation associate. This will be the image I conjure up in my head when drafting posts. I want it to be the sort of resource to which I would have turned when I was a beginning lawyer.
That said, most of the posts will be relevant and accessible to other lawyers, to paralegals, to legal secretaries, and even to persons outside the field. You needn’t have a bar number to view the posts.
Who are you?
I am a junior partner at LeClairRyan, a mid- to large-sized firm based in Richmond, Virginia. My practice area focuses on dispositive motions and appellate work. I do a LOT of writing, for courts all over the country.
I live in Roanoke, which is a mid-sized city along the Blue Ridge in western (not West!) Virginia. I have a wife and four kids. I have wide-ranging interests, including astronomy, photography, history, biology, philosophy, and origami. I do a LOT of reading.
Ha Ha! I caught you making a grammatical error! And you’re “Mr. Word of Law”!
Let me get this one out of the way early. As my wife constantly reminds me, I do not have perfect grammar. I am not a perfect writer. And I probably will violate every usage/grammar/style precept that I advocate in these posts, even in the very posts that describe them. Feel free to remind me of this—but do so diplomatically, please. Just because I am writing about writing, don’t expect the writing to be prefect.
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