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What’s the difference between a “little used car” and a “little-used car”? Between “more critical attacks” and “more-critical attacks”? Or, for that matter, between “toxic tort litigation” and “toxic-tort litigation”? Friends don’t let friends worry about what modifies what. That’s why grammarians invented rules for multiword phrases known as “compound
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Looking to start a fight between two corporate attorneys? Ask whether an agreement is made between Tom, Dick, and Harry—or among Tom, Dick, and Harry. Many lawyers cling to junior-high grammar rules, which would dictate agreements between two parties and among three or more. Think metaphorically instead: Is a multi-party agreement more like “sand between the toes” or
Your seventh-grade English teacher told you never to split an infinitive: no adverb between “to” and a verb. Never mind that the Starship Enterprise sought to boldly go where no man had gone before: You, an ordinary kid, had to obey the laws of grammar and physics alike. No one ever
When I ask my audiences which words or phrases they like to cut from their drafts, someone often mentions the word “that.” Not so fast, I suggest. I plucked the example below from the first pages of an Illinois Court of Appeals opinion on Buffalo Wild Wings and on trailing modifiers in
Lawyers love to quibble about everything. But of all the the potential topics to debate, grammar provides the best fodder for the persnickety legal practitioner. Here are four grammar topics certain to energize your next round of office icebreakers. 1. Should I Use a Serial Comma? Some say we should
Ever since I created an editing app, my usual workshop feats, like engaging bleary-eyed associates and racing to the last flight to O’Hare, seem like child’s play. I still relish the challenge, but if I give you a peek behind the glossy interface, you’ll see what I mean. Say you
In the legal world, debates about hyphenating “summary judgment standard” or “publicly traded company” are as cordial and restrained as arguments over proper fonts, Oxford commas, and spacing after periods. Let me try to keep the peace with just these three points: 1. When two or more words form a
Kagan and Kavanaugh disagree on a lot these days, including in their Borden v. United States face-off. These two prominent Justices do share supreme writing skills, though. Like all great stylists, they trim their respective sentences with gusto, but as I’ve explained before, follow the lead of these Justices by sparing the
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