The event is finally here--meaning I can almost stop working on this project and return to normal life.
This Friday, April 26, 2013, is the Exceptional Legal Writing seminar at the Texas Law Center in Austin.
Part of my presentation on "Clarity and Grace" includes an investigation to see if the concepts taught by Joseph M. Williams hold true for legal writers the same way that they do for academic writers. To give that investigation some scientifical truthiness, I subjected three chief justices to a randomized, scientific trial.
I wanted to see if the judges known for clear and graceful writing crafted their prose like Williams said they ought to. I also wanted to see if the Williams DNA was absent in a chief justice whose prose was hard to read.
But don't worry. No Chiefs were harmed in the making of this presentation.
The results very clear, even if we ought not be surprised by them. There is no such thing as good legal writing. There is only good writing and lousy writing. The topic does not matter. The topic does not change what you need to do to engage your reader.
I hope you can attend.
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