A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage

by Garner, Bryan A.

• ISBN13: 9780195065787
• ISBN10: 0195065786
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1990-11-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The need for clarity and precision in legal writing has become increasingly apparent in recent years. Until this award-winning book appeared, the unwieldy body of legal language had not been collected or scrutinized in any systematic way. Far more than a typical law dictionary, A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage is the first and only comprehensive guide to style and usage for the legal writer. Bryan A. Garner, an editor, academic, and practicing lawyer has written an accessible, authoritative, and up-to-date guide that will help anyone in the legal thicket write better, including lawyers, judges, students, journalists, and those who work in other fields concerned with law (among them medicine, business, and finance). At once scholarly and entertaining, the alphabetical entries define and distinguish between commonly misused words; explain standard usages that other reference works ignore; and cumulatively provide an unparalleled guide to legal style. On virtually every page, the volume contains sparkling essays on such topics as metaphors, sexism, cliches, Latinisms, danglers, split infinitives, and purple prose. It also brims with actual illustrations from judicial opinions, statutes, briefs, and law review articles. Already viewed as the classic book in its field, A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage fills an important gap in legal reference literature.

Author Biography

About the Author:
Bryan A. Garner, a visiting professor of law at the University of Texas School of Law, is editor-in-chief of both the Oxford Law Dictionary and the Scribes Journal of Legal Writing. He is the author of the forthcoming book, The Elements of Legal Style.