PLI’s Thinking Like a Writer: A Lawyer’s Guide to Effective Writing and Editing gives you the specialized knowledge and techniques to draft clear and compelling legal documents, no matter how complicated the issues involved.

Featuring drafting exercises and examples, Thinking Like a Writer enables you to craft introductions that engage readers from the start; develop a credible, professional writing persona; write strong, streamlined sentences that bring subjects into clear focus; create logically-linked paragraphs that carry readers forward smoothly; break up information stylistically and graphically to enhance comprehension; use syntax, verbs, and varied sentence lengths to keep readers’ attention; instill writing with added grace and imagination; communicate with different audiences, including clients, associates, senior lawyers, and judges; and identify drafting problems, understand their causes, and find the right editorial solutions.

Thinking Like a Writer shows you how to blend reason and emotion, detail and simplicity, concrete language and metaphors, to ensure that your legal writing does full justice to your legal thinking.

Updated as needed, Thinking Like a Writer: A Lawyer’s Guide to Effective Writing and Editing is a vital working handbook for attorneys and a useful reference for judges and paralegals. 

Founded in 1933, Practising Law Institute is the nation’s foremost provider of continuing legal education. PLI is a leading publisher of authoritative legal references and other information resources and offers more than 300 live and electronic programs nationally.

About the Authors

Stephen V. Armstrong has taught writing programs for judges and lawyers in the United States and Canada under the sponsorship of such groups as the Federal Judicial Center, the Practising Law Institute, ALI-ABA, and the American Bar Association. He has also taught writing in law firms and worked extensively with the writing of practicing lawyers, and has published widely on the topic of continuing professional development for lawyers.

Timothy P. Terrell has been a member of the faculty of Emory University School of Law since 1976 and has been a visiting professor at the law schools at the University of Iowa, the University of San Diego, and the University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in England. He has taught a wide range of courses but now focuses on legal theory, legal ethics, and property law. He has published extensively in all these areas.