ABA Journal

Bryan Garner on Words

90 ABA Journal Bryan Garner on Words articles.

How to incorporate big data into your day-to-day toolkit

When in 2004 Google announced its ambitious project of scanning all books ever printed and amassing the information into a huge database, perhaps nobody understood the full ramifications of the…

Bryan Garner’s tribute to his friend and co-author Antonin Scalia

"Originalism," so called, is perhaps the single issue for which Justice Antonin Scalia, my co-author on two books, was most controversial. I'll never forget his ire—it was full-blown anger—when I…

A ‘conversation’ with the late, great lexicographer Samuel Johnson

Recently I had the opportunity to sit down with the great Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)—or rather with his books—to see what he had to say about lawyers, their profession and their…

30 more words to test your pronunciation skills

If you took the pronunciation quiz in last month's issue, you may well have had any of several reactions, some negative. (1) Denial: That can't be right! I've never…

Is your pronunciation on point? Take this quiz to find out

Every so often a news item appears about how a particular legal term is most properly pronounced. Certiorari, for example, surfaces from time to time. Last year an article on…

Good headings show you’ve thought out your arguments well in advance

The most important part of a brief? That depends on whom you ask. Some say the issue statements. Others say page 1 (which ought to amount to the same thing).…

The Bluebook’s 20th edition prompts many musings from Bryan Garner

About 10 years ago, I was finishing a book for a friend of mine in London, the late Sir Robert Megarry, when in his mid-90s his health began to fail.…

Word choice influences the way jurors understand your argument

Bryan Garner offers a Magna Carta style guide

The Library of Congress has staged a magnificent exhibit on Magna Carta and its history. It is, after all, the 800th anniversary of the Great Charter of 1215. To…

How are your punctuation skills? Try this comparison exercise to find out

My fellow lawyers often bristle when I tell them that, on the whole, our profession can't punctuate. It's rare that I don't have to change commas, colons or hyphens in…

Regaining the Joy of Reading

At a law firm retreat, a partner approached me during a break. She had a problem she hoped I could solve: "I can't read anymore. I've lost the ability. I…

10 Tips for Better Legal Writing

Bryan Garner on legal neologisms and how ‘Black’s Law Dictionary’ keeps up (podcast with transcript)

Podcast Transcript

Stephanie Francis Ward: Language is a living thing. New words and phrases—or even grammatical shifts—mean that a lexicographer’s work is never truly complete.

Bryan A. Garner: Our to-do…

A Tale of 2 Associates: How polish and attention to detail can win the motion

The tortuous tale behind the 10th edition of the most widely cited lawbook in the world

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