Full Description
Learn to become a great writer and master modern grammar rules with the U.S. Supreme Court justices as your guide.
In The Supreme Guide to Writing, law professor Jill Barton cuts through competing advice to detail definitive grammar rules based on the nation's unequivocal authority: the U.S. Supreme Court. The book details a revolution in legal writing, with the justices progressing beyond the drab and technical for the deft and lyrical. With the first-ever analysis of 10,000 pages of Court opinions, the book pinpoints grammar and style rules that the justices follow--and describes the outdated rules they leave behind.
Today's Court casts aside formality in favor of pop-culture references, contractions, and approachable language. In addition to establishing grammar and style rules, the book illustrates best practices with hundreds of examples of the justices' most brilliant sentences from the past several years. With step-by-step instructions, the book describes how to emulate the justices' writing styles by breaking down their strategies and techniques. It shows how Justice Elena Kagan lands amusing quips and weaves together down-to-earth analogies, how Justice Neil Gorsuch executes witty retorts, and how Chief Justice John Roberts pens unforgettable lines with understated style and humor. The best writing appears effortless, but it also takes tremendous effort. Legal writing even more so. The Supreme Guide to Writing provides a nonpartisan look at how the justices present their words to the world.
Contents
Introduction
Part I ‾ Punctuation Marks
Chapter 1. Apostrophes
Chapter 2. Brackets
Chapter 3. Colons
Chapter 4. Commas
Chapter 5. Ellipses
Chapter 6. Em-dash
Chapter 7. En-dash
Chapter 8. Emoticon and Emojis
Chapter 9. Exclamation marks
Chapter 10. Hyphens
Chapter 11. Parentheses
Chapter 12. Periods
Chapter 13. Question marks
Chapter 14. Quotation marks
Chapter 15. Semicolons
Chapter 16. Spaces
Part II ‾ Words
Chapter 17. Adjectives and Adverbs
Chapter 18. Alliteration and Repetition
Chapter 19. Because vs. Since
Chapter 20. Conjunctions
Chapter 21. Modifiers
Chapter 22. Names and Titles
Chapter 23. Negatives
Chapter 24. Numbers
Chapter 25. Prepositions
Chapter 26. Pronouns
Chapter 27. Qualifiers and Intensifiers
Chapter 28. Relative Pronouns: When, Where, Who, Whom, and Whose
Chapter 29. Short Words-and Sentences
Chapter 30. Split Infinitives
Chapter 31. Transitions
Chapter 32. Verbs
Closing
