Bryan Garner on Words

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 commemorate the event, Justice Randy J. Holland of the Delaware Supreme Court has edited a book to accompany the exhibit: Magna…

Jan 1, 2015 5:52 AM CST

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 almost every line of type in any brief or contract I review. But that's because I'm applying the standards of…

Dec 1, 2014 4:40 AM CST

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 used to read great literature—all the time—but now I can't. Ever since I went to law school, I find myself…

Nov 1, 2014 5:50 AM CDT

10 Tips for Better Legal Writing

Oct 1, 2014 3:00 AM CDT

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 list is still very long. I have 2500 terms yet to be defined. Stephanie Francis Ward: I’m Stephanie Francis Ward.…

Jul 7, 2014 1:30 PM CDT