Legal-writing tip: Front-load your information

I'm not a quick study, so maybe it's just me. But it seems that I am stuck reading a lot of legal writing multiple times before I understand it. Readers will often resent this (I do) or give up trying to figure it out. The one thing that legal writers can do to avoid this is to front-load the information. You should try to synopsize or summarize at the beginning of your letter or document what you're trying to say so that your readers have a road map where you're going. It puts everything in context for them. Doing this takes real work. So the question becomes: How does offloading this work to your readers help them understand it or be persuaded by it?
Posted on July 18, 2010 by James R. Covington
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