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Point Taken: How to Write Like the World's Best Judges

Point Taken: How to Write Like the World's Best Judges

Author: Ross Guberman
Publisher: Oxford University Press USA
ISBN: 9780190268589
Published In: September 2015
Format: Paperback , 376 pages
Jurisdiction: International ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

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Description
Contents

Details

In Point Taken, Ross Guberman delves into the work of the best judicial opinion-writers and offers a step-by-step method based on practical and provocative examples. Featuring numerous cases and opinions from 35 prolific judges - from Learned Hand to Antonin Scalia - Point Taken, explores what it takes to turn "great judicial writing" into "great writing".

Guberman provides a system for crafting effective and efficient openings to set the stage, covering the pros and cons of whether to resolve legal issues up front and whether to sacrifice taut syllogistic openings in the name of richness and nuance.

Guberman offers strategies for pruning clutter, adding background, emphasizing key points, adopting a narrative voice, and guiding the reader through visual cues. The structure and flow of the legal analysis is targeted through a host of techniques for organizing the discussion at the macro level, using headings, marshaling authorities, including or avoiding footnotes, and finessing transitions.

Guberman shares his style "Must Haves", a bounty of edits at the word and sentence level that add punch and interest, and that make opinions more vivid, varied, confident, and enjoyable. He also outlines his style "Nice to Haves", metaphors, similes, examples, analogies, allusions, and rhetorical figures.

Finally, he addresses the thorny problem of dissents, extracting the best practices for dissents based on facts, doctrine, or policy. The appendix provides a helpful checklist of practice pointers along with biographies of the 35 featured judges.

Introduction
Part I. Set the Stage: The Opening
Part II. The Tale: The Facts
Part III. The Meat: The Legal Analysis
Part IV. The Words: Style "Must-Haves"
Part V. The Words: "Nice-to-Haves" in Style
Part VI. Dissents: The Road Not Traveled
Part VII. Appendices
Biographies
Practice Pointers
Index