Writing Resources

General Writing Help:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/

Purdue’s Online Writing lab has sections devoted to style, grammar, and mechanics, as well as resources on English as a second language. Although the site is geared toward academic writing in the humanities and sciences, it offers excellent general writing tips that apply to all writing, including legal writing.

http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/index.html
This UNC-Chapel Hill website has "handouts" on various writing topics.  The handouts are primirily geared towards undergrad writing, but some like "Transitions," "Thesis Statements," and "Proofreading" are helpful to law students.

Style Guides:

http://www.economist.com/research/StyleGuide/

The Economist’s style guide has an excellent section on unnecessary words. Additionally, it contrasts American English with British English in a number of contexts, so it’s handy for students who learned English as a second language.

http://www.bartleby.com/141/

The classic, Strunk & White’s Elements of Style, is available online. This remains a useful general tool for matters of style and  is a great reference for words and common phrases often misused or misspelled.

Grammar Guides:

http://users.law.capital.edu/DHughes/content/Content2/Grammar/Grammar%20Main%20Page.htm
A "Brief Grammar Guide" to parts of speech.

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html

An exhaustive list of common usage errors.

http://cctc.commnet.edu/grammar/index2.htm

Capital Community College Foundation publishes an online Guide to Grammar and Writing, which hosts various usage quizzes.

Punctuation:

http://www1.umn.edu/urelate/style/punctuation.html

The University of Minnesota offers an online style manual designed to promote consistency in the University’s publication. The punctuation guide is comprehensive.

http://www.nationalpunctuationday.com/

A quick reference guide to punctuation marks.

Legal Writing - Grammar and Style

http://www.kentlaw.edu/academics/lrw/grinker/LWTA.htm

Interactive guide to the rules of writing, aimed at law students, covering grammar, punctuation and issues of style. The exercises require the user to download a browser plug-in.

Legal Writing - Citation:

http://www.lwionline.org/publications/plagiarism/policy.pdf

The Legal Writing Institute’s guide to plagiarism and proper attribution, available online, includes exercises for the student.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/citation/

The Legal Information Institute at Cornel produces an Introduction to Basic Legal Citation which offers an excellent introduction to, and explanation of, legal citation. Although geared primarily toward users of the Harvard Bluebook, it discusses the differences in the manuals, as well as practitioner norms which reflect usage of neither, and discusses the debate about citation forms.

Legal Writing - style:

http://www.law.ucla.edu/volokh/legalese.htm

UCLA law Professor Eugene Volokh’s often-referenced “Eschew, Evade, and/or Eradicate Legalese” list of plain English replacements for “common clunkers”.

http://www.persuasiveauthority.com/links/resources/OrwellBrief.htm

Writing a Brief the George Orwell Way by Professor Wayne Schiess, University of Texas,  offers six simple rules for simplifying and strengthening legal writing. Professor Schiess also writes a blog at http://legalwriting.net/ which students may find useful.