Help! My student’s
cant rite
Professor Ann Ching, Pepperdine University School of Law
Professor Jayne T. Woods, University of Missouri School of Law
The Problem
Photo Credit: Kyoto Hamada/The Atlantic
Typographical Errors
Typographical errors
• “pubic policy”
• “A karate school that taught exclusively combatoriented marital arts was not required to offer less
combat-oriented instruction.”
• “On no account should the recipes be changed
unless the customer specifically requests certain
indigents be excluded.”
• “The defendant committed a hate crime when he
defecated a cross.”
• “cat orgies”
Word usage errors
– Inigo Montoya (The Princess Bride)
Word usage errors
• “seminole case”
• “The heresy of the plaintiff should not have been
admitted.”
• “It is the burden of the Government to prove malice
after thought.”
• “The plaintiff was fired after he failed to purge
himself on the witness stand after being asked to do
so by his employer.”
• “the indigenous client”
• “The accident was the approximate cause of the
plaintiff’s injuries.”
And (the best!) modifier errors
And (the best!) modifier errors
• “Plaintiff’s breasts were groped while being verbally
harassed.”
• “The Pregnancy Discrimination Act forbids the
discrimination against women who are pregnant by
employers.”
• “Mary and Michael had unprotected sex that lasted for
six months. Michael didn't get tested for HIV until after
they had stopped having sex.”
• “Sliced thin and piled high, the deli customers love the
corned beef special.”
Why do we care?
• Precision in language is our job
• Examples:
– The million-dollar comma
– The Motion to Correct Plaintiff’s Name (which was
Conklin but consistently typed as “cock and” on all
prior filings)
– The debate over the meaning of the Second
Amendment
– The bench slap (referring attorneys to various
legal writing texts . . . Maybe that’s not so bad!)
Part 1: Using Classroom Technology
“Clicker” Slides
Photo Credit: Buffalo State University
Demonstration and “Clicker” Set-up
Please change your clicker to channel 41
FIRST: Click on the
Channel Button on
your clicker. This is
located in the
bottom left-hand
corner.
SECOND: Enter
the channel
number:
Press 4 then 1.
First click here
THIRD: Click on the
Channel Button
again.
First click here
Which sentence is grammatically correct?
Plural Modifier,
so incorrect
1. The court issued their ruling.
2. The court issued its ruling.
Singular
subject
Singular
modifier
0%
0%
Assuming Joe is the plaintiff, which
sentence is grammatically correct?
1. Plaintiff’s brief is ten pages long.
2. Plaintiffs brief is ten pages long.
Need the possessive.
0%
0%
Pick the grammatically correct sentence.
This stands for “it is.”
It is a contraction,
not a possessive.
1. The sun moves in it’s own orbit.
2. The sun moves in its’ own orbit.
3. The sun moves in its own orbit.
Not a word.
0%
0%
0%
Which sentence best conveys the author’s thought?
1. Among legal scholars, disagreements are common regarding
almost every issue in the law.
2. The lack of uniformity of perceptibility is apparent to anyone
who reads any number of treatises.
3. Legal scholars are almost never in complete unification on any
issue in the law.
Word choice—“agreement”
is better
Doesn’t pass the “huh?” test.
Confusing words
0%
1
0%
2
0%
3
Reports
Advantages of Clicker Slides
Photo Credit: Turning Technologies
Disadvantages of Clicker Slides
Part 2: Interactive Exercise
How can we get our students care?
Do you think this a well-written
passage?
1. Yes
2. No
0%
0%
Do you think the author of this
passage intelligent?
1. Yes
2. No
0%
0%
Do you think the author cares about
this case?
1. Yes
2. No
0%
0%
Would you trust the author to
represent you if you were facing jail
time?
1. Yes
2. No
0%
0%
The Big Reveal
• Look at the top of your paper; there should be a
letter.
• How many people had A?
• A is an untampered-with excerpt from Justice
Scalia’s opinion in White v. Woodall, 134 S.Ct.
1697, 1704 (2014).
• B has errors in fonts and justification
• C has errors in spacing and punctuation
• D has spelling errors
Questions?