The Best-Selling Legal Writing Books of All Time

This book is a must for anyone who works with or writes legal descriptions. Each of the fourteen chapters is structured for the self teaching student or for class participation. Each chapter concludes with assignments, exercises, questions and answers. Supported by extensive court citations, the author presents the material in a concise style which can be understood by the student, practitioner, or attorney. The text is supported by samples, recommended forms, and extensive illustrations.

The National Jurist featured Plain English for Lawyers in its August 2021 list of "Three Books to Read During Law School," saying, "This one speaks for itself. The book is a quick punch of information: it provides helpful tips to improve your legal writing while familiarizing you with many of the terms of art you are likely to see down the road as a legal professional.". Plain English for Lawyers has been a favorite of law students, legal writing teachers, lawyers, and judges for almost 40 years.

The sixth edition, now co-authored by Amy Sloan, updates this classic text, including new chapter exercises, while preserving all the approaches that make it such a standard in the field. It remains (in size only!) a little book, small enough and palatable enough not to intimidate over-loaded law students. In January 2005, the Legal Writing Institute gave Wydick its Golden Pen Award for having written Plain English for Lawyers. The Legal Writing Institute is a non-profit organization that provides a forum for discussion and scholarship about legal writing, analysis, and research. The Institute has over 1,300 members representing all of the ABA-accredited law schools in the United States. Its membership also includes law teachers from other nations, English teachers, and practicing lawyers.

Whether a law student or a paralegal student, The Little Book on Legal Writing allows one to dramatically improve his or her legal writing with minimum effort. This book is geared to the kind of writing first-year law students do in a standard legal writing course: memorandums and briefs. However, almost all the advice given applies to other kinds of legal writing as well, such as contracts and pleadings. In fact, much of the advice applies to nonfiction writing in general, because good legal writing is simply good writing.

Each subject is broken down into simple, concise sections, making The Little Book on Legal Writing an excellent title for any professor s legal writing course.