To pass your law school exams now and the bar exams later on, you must do these four things: (1) master the codal provisions; (2) improve your handwriting; (3) become proficient in English grammar; and (4) learn how to write logically, clearly, concisely, and effectively. 1. Master the codal provisions: Read your law books; you can’t expect to graduate from law school or pass the bar exams if you don’t know the provisions of the Family Code, the New Civil Code, Rules of Court, etc. Posted below are some reflections by bar examiners on how deficient some bar examinees are with their stock know ..read more

Four things you can do that will ensure that you pass your law school exams and the bar exams are to: (1) master the codal provisions; (2) improve your handwriting; (3) become proficient with English grammar; and (4) learn how to write logically, clearly, concisely, and effectively. 1. Master the codal provisions: Crack your law books; you can’t expect to graduate from law school or pass the bar exams if you don’t know the provisions of the Family Code, the New Civil Code, Rules of Court, etc. Posted below are some reflections by bar examiners on how deficient some bar examinees are with thei ..read more

1. Resources by by Judge Gerald Lebovits (an adjunct professor at New York Law School and two other law schools): Do’s, Don’ts, and Maybes: Legal Writing Punctuation — Part I This three-part series addresses periods, question marks, exclamation points, colons, semicolons, parentheses, brackets, commas, hyphens, quotation marks, apostrophes, dashes, slashes, ellipses, and accent marks. Punctuation refers to symbols that organize and give structure to writing. Punctuation lets you change the inflection of your voice and give meaning to your words. Punctuation helps speed up or slow down lang ..read more

1. Resources by by Judge Gerald Lebovits (an adjunct professor at New York Law School and two other law schools): Do’s, Don’ts, and Maybes: Legal Writing Grammar — Part I Good grammar is a good start, although good legal writing demands much more. Knowing grammar won’t make you a good legal writer. But you’re a poor legal writer if you don’t know grammar. Topics discussed: Singular and plural nouns; Pronouns; Fused Participles; Verb Tenses and Moods; Irregular Verbs; Gerunds; Agreement; Parallelism; Sentence Fragment; And and To Do’s, Don’ts, and Maybes: Legal Writing Grammar — Part II T ..read more

1. Resources by by Judge Gerald Lebovits (an adjunct professor at New York Law School and two other law schools): Problem Words and Pairs in Legal Writing — Part I Problem Words and Pairs in Legal Writing—Part II Problem Words and Pairs in Legal Writing—Part III Problem Words and Pairs in Legal Writing—Part IV In Part II, Judge Lebovits says in tongue-in-cheek fashion: As Lord Chief Justice Mansfield wrote, “Most of the disputes in the world arise from words.” Therefore, utilize words good. Irregardless how others employ words, you are suppose to use them like a writer should. Be espec ..read more

I started this blog on October 30, 2005 as part of my Family Matters website. My website tracker Statcounter.com reports that, as of today, this blog has now been visited more than 1,550,220 times. Blogger.com, meanwhile, reports that this blog has now reached more than 4,979,476 page views. Statcounter, which I started using sometime in 2014 in addition to Blogger, sometimes uses the term “sessions” instead of “unique visits.” Another tracker that I used before, Sitemeter.com, reported that the average time spent per visit was over three minutes. Note: Click the graphics below to view mu ..read more

Sentence without Oxford comma: I’d like to thank my parents, Ayn Rand and God. Sentence with Oxford comma: I’d like to thank my parents, Ayn Rand, and God. 1. From Wikipedia: “In English language punctuation, a serial comma or series comma (also called an Oxford comma or a Harvard comma) is a comma placed immediately before the coordinating conjunction (usually and or or) in a series of three or more terms. For example, a list of three countries might be punctuated either as ‘France, Italy, and Spain’ (with the serial comma), or as ‘France, Italy and Spain’ (without the serial comma).” “A ..read more

1. The “million-dollar comma case” was a 2006 dispute between Rogers Communication (a cable company) and Bell Aliant (a telephone company). It involved the use of more than 90,000 utility poles scattered across Canada’s easternmost provinces; value of the contract was around 900 thousand Canadian dollars. Issues: How long is the duration of the contract? Can Bell Aliant cancel its contract with Rogers at any time, even before end of the term? Background facts: Date of execution of the contract between Rogers Communication and Bell Aliant was May 31, 2002. The issues revolved around the i ..read more

20 Writing Mistakes Even Native Speakers Make (infographic) from GrammarCheck Click the graphic above to view or download the full infographic (2.48 MB, 900 by 7650 px) Interactive exercises with time limit and automatic scoring: Interactive exercises in grammar (than - then) Interactive exercises in grammar (its - it’s) Interactive exercises in grammar (their -they’re) Interactive exercises in grammar (who’s – whose; your - you’re) Relevant resource: “The Infographic Guide to Grammar: A Visual Reference to Everything You Need to Know” Mastering grammar is now easier than ever with this ..read more

Jump to: Efficient Use of Paper Rule A.M. No. 11-9-4-SC; Save forests, use Plain English; Proposed Rules on E-Filing A. M. 10-3-7-SC; Typography in briefs and other papers, from US 7th Circuit Court of Appeals; US SEC design guidelines; How to create a PDF 1. “Typography for Lawyers, Essential Tools for Polished and Persuasive Documents” by Matthew Butterick (California-based lawyer; graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in visual and environmental studies; designed fonts for Apple and Microsoft; awarded the Legal Writing Institute’s 2012 Golden Pen Award) Good ty ..read more