Bryan A. Garner

What a fabulous book!

I love and collect books about English usage and history, but this one is unique. I was surprised to receive the envelope from the American Bar Association, as I had not picked it up as being targeted at legal writing. However as Bryan Garner says somewhere, law is traditionally an educated profession, and so the book is suitable for any person wishing to write in an educated manner. And yet, having challenged my expectations for a book on language by being about legal show more writing, it then challenged my expectations for a book on legal writing by being fun and funny. Just check out "octopus, octopi, octopodes" in the index, to see what I mean. There are extensive and useful lists of references and suggestions, and it is fun to think that I might have to write Mr Garner a note suggesting a couple of books he should look at, if not include in future editions.

It is also worth saying that I was strongly and delightfully reminded of the tone of Strunk and White in "The Elements of Style": both practical and American in character.

This book will be a pleasure to keep by the desk as a reference, and to rummage around in during a spare moment, for fun. I will be suggesting it to the school library where I volunteer as a reference work to acquire. show less

Check out "Authority and American Usage" (aka "Tense Present: Democracy, English, and the Wars over Usage" as it appeared in Harper's Magazine) by David Foster Wallace. It'll rock your world, especially if you -- like me -- never thought about who has the ultimate authority regarding what's "correct" in english. The essay covers a whole world of fascinating content but at its core is structured around a review of this book, A Dictionary of Modern American Usage by Bryan A. Garner. The final show more takeaway is that authority of the english language is a surprisingly murky question, but Bryan A. Garner comes about as close as one can get to being such an authority. That's basically the argument that's submitted, anyway.

I was successfully persuaded into sharing this belief by the end of the essay. My wife got me a copy of A Dictionary of Modern American Usage as a gift a few years ago, and it's been cherished as one of the finest books in my collection ever since. It answers most of the questions you will ever have about the english language, and many many more that you would never have thought of. It's an incredibly comprehensive reference text, and yet it's extremely accessible, never condescending, and never stuffy. All this and more is worked out in the aforementioned essay; this is the crux of why ADMAU is so good and so... trustable.

One last thing: I became such a fan of this book that I eventually contacted Bryan A. Garner himself and asked him a question about a technical usage issue that arose in a book I was reading for fun at the time. It was not a life-or-death question; it wasn't important at all. I was asking out of genuine curiosity and was not even really expecting a response. But he wrote back that very morning -- despite having no obligation to do so -- and gave me a detailed and thoughtful response. I've asked more questions since and gotten more answers. He's very knowledgeable and very kind. Get this book if you don't have it already and let it change your life. show less

I have no respect for Scalia as a human being or judge; while obviously bright, he strikes me as lacking essential empathy and humanity. But Scalia has probably seen and heard and read it all when it comes to legal arguments, so he is a good source for what works. And since it is probably virtually impossible to convince Scalia of anything that contradicts his pre-formed world-view, he may be an even better source for what might work on stubborn, uncaring and intractable dogmatists than most show more other judges out there.

I have tremendous respect for Garner, despite his choice of co-authors. Garner's knowledge of legal writing is top-notch. While this book is very much geared to lawyers and how they can improve their legal writing, it contains nuggets that would be useful for anyone who wants to convince someone else of their position in writing. Highly recommended. show less

What is amazing to me is that when the 1) foremost legal writing authority in the US, and 2) a supreme court justice write a book about how to write briefs and prepare for oral arguments, most lawyers incorrectly believe that they are doing even a small portion of the work it takes to meet this standard of excellence. I've recently read briefs and court submittals from $400+/hour attorneys that clearly had not been given a cursory review by a proofreader (in all likelihood, the documents show more probably weren't even read by the lawyer that submitted them and billed a ton of mula - one of them was probably written by a 100-hour per week associate-slave and the other was clearly cut-pasted from previous documents).

Had they read their own documents, they would have found the most basic mistakes - misidentifying the parties, pasting in information from previous cases and transactions unrelated to the current transaction. If you want to be a good lawyer, read this book, attend Bryan Garner seminars and do ALL that he recommends along with the recommendations of the supreme court justices and other judges he writes with. If you want to be a typical lawyer, then bill lots of hours, don't do the things recommended here - as most don't anyway - and hope your clients never ask me to review your work.

Unfortunately, the practice of law is no longer a venue for excellence and logical problem-solving to support clients. It's a system of billable hours with smoke and mirrors to confuse and confound laypeople who don't understand the legalese. If you are hiring a lawyer, read this book (it's pretty short) and see if your lawyer does any of the items recommended. If not, then you still might do ok if the law is on your side, but it won't be because your lawyer is any good. show less