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TOPIC 6
LANGUAGE SKILLS FOR LAWYERS
Law is language based. As such, lawyers and law students require adequate language skills so
that they can express their ideas precisely, concisely and clearly.
Materials
 Michael Meehan and Graham Tulloch, Grammar for Lawyers, 2nd ed. LexisNexis
Butterworths
 Cook, Creyke at al Ch 16
 Course materials
6.1
Revision of norms of grammar and punctuation
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6.2
Effective communication
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6.3
Answering the question as asked
Effective structure
Commonly used terms in essay and exam questions
Writing a good exam/assignment answer
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6.5
Purpose and audience
Structure
o Logical
o Sequential
o Introductions and conclusions
Style
o Plain English drafting
o Simpler, shorter sentences
Word choice
o Need for precision
o Need for clarity
o Technical terms and terms of art
o Use of a legal dictionary
Class exercises to review and revise principles
Essay writing
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6.4
Parts of speech
Parts of a sentence
Punctuation
Class exercises to review and revise basic principles
Answering the question
Isolating all relevant issues
Clearly structured
Applying the law and supporting argument with examples
Review of assignments
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Structural focus
Class marking exercise
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Essential Grammar for Lawyers
The language of a lawyer must be precise, not ambiguous or vague.
“Plain English alone achieves nothing; to be useful it must run in tandem with clear thought.
Simple and individually comprehensible words, if carelessly and inconsistently employed,
are not likely to produce readily comprehensible phrases, sentences, paragraphs …..”
Tadgell JA in R v Roach [1998] VR 665 at 669-670.
Every word in a sentence has a purpose - a grammatical function.
Consider this sentence:
The hairy dog frequently chased my brother and me around a very dark park at night.
The – definite article; used before a noun to show that the noun refers to a particular person, place,
thing or idea.
Hairy – adjective; qualifies a noun or pronoun. Answers the question – How many? What kind?
Which one? Here it modifies dog.
Dog – noun; a person, place, thing or idea.
Frequently – adverb; qualifies a verb, adjective or other adverb. Tells you how, when, where or
why. Here it qualifies the verb chased, telling when.
Chased – verb; a doing, being or having word. Here it is in the past tense.
My – possessive adjective/pronoun; refers to a person or thing without naming it and which has
possession of something.
Brother – noun.
And – conjunction; connects words, phrases or clauses. Here connects brother and me.
Me – pronoun; refers to a person, place or thing without naming it.
Around – preposition; connects a noun or pronoun to another word in the sentence and establishes
a relationship between them. Here connects the park to the chasing.
A – indefinite article; used before a noun to refer to an unspecified person, place, thing or idea.
Very – adverb; qualifying an adjective – dark.
Dark – adjective; qualifies the noun – park.
Park – noun.
At – preposition; connects night to chasing.
Night – noun.
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Parts of Speech
NOUNS:
Types
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Common – things which share a common name – lawyer, house, court.
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Proper – refers to one individual in a wider class – Chief Justice of Australia, Mary Smith,
the High Court.
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Collective – a group of things, people or animals – committee, jury, parliament.
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Concrete – something that can be seen or touched – book, table, pen.
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Abstract – something that has no physical existence – courage, youth, freedom.
Agreement of noun and verb
Type of noun
Singular
Plural
Collective
Compound subjects
Singular/plural verb
Singular
Plural
Singular – but can be plural
if the items are considered
separate.
Singular, if preceded by
‘the’; plural if preceded by
‘a’.
Plural
Alternatives
Singular
Indefinite pronouns ending
in -body, -one, -thing.
Indefinite pronouns, e.g.
any, either
Singular
None
Should take singular.
“Number”
Should take singular, (plural
is becoming acceptable).
Example
The lawyer is clever.
The lawyers are clever.
Cabinet has decided to act.
Cabinet have decided to act.
The number of girls is reduced.
A number of girls are early.
The Plaintiffs and Defendants are
ready.
A dismissal of charges or
withdrawal of the case is
necessary.
Everybody is able to write well.
Anything is easier than this.
Any of the judges is able to
understand this.
Neither of the defendants is
available.
None of the witnesses is reliable.
PRONOUNS:
I, you, he, she
His, hers, mine, ours, theirs
Him, her
Pronouns replace the noun.
They take the same number and grammatical form as the noun they are replacing.
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VERBS:
Doing, being or having words.
Types
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Simple – one word, e.g. He runs home.
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Compound – two or more words, e.g. He washed up the dishes.
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Auxiliary – joins the main verb to tell the tense or mood, or voice, e.g.
They will run home.
They had run home.
They may run home.
They must run home.
Tense
The tense tells you when the action of the verb takes place.
The tense is often indicated by the auxiliary verb.
Examples:
He has gone home.
He had gone home, when….
He goes home.
PREPOSITIONS:
Are hard to define but easy to recognise.
The relationship between a noun or pronoun and another word in a sentence.
Examples:
In, at, on, around, between and over.
Syntax
The grammatical structure of a sentence.
A sentence must have a verb.
It will have a subject – this is the noun/pronoun which does, is or has.
It will often have an object – that which the noun/pronoun does, is or has.
It may also have an indirect object telling you to or for whom the action was done.
The hairy dog pushed the ball to my brother and me.
The hairy dog – subject, it did the verb/the chasing.
pushed – verb
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the ball – direct object, what was chased
to my brother and me – indirect object, to whom it was chased.
The pronouns which cause the most problems are:
The subject pronouns:
I, and who;
and the object pronouns:
me and whom.
The easiest way to decide whether you should use the subjective or the objective pronoun is to
remove all additional nouns and pronouns and listen to the sentence.
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Mary and I played ball?
Or,
Mary and me played ball?
Who are the subjects of the sentence? What is the object of the sentence?
OR
Remove “Mary and” and listen to the result – I played ball, or me played ball?
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He gave the cat to Jim and I.
Or,
He gave the cat to Jim and me.
Remove the additional noun “Jim and” and you are left with – He gave the cat to I OR, He gave the
cat to me.
This method works no matter how long or convoluted the sentence.
CLAUSES AND PHRASES:
A clause is a collection of words which contains a verb.
A sentence can consist of one clause or a number of clauses joined by a conjunction.
Some conjunctions are: and, or, but, if, because, so, therefore.
Examples:
The dog is big – clause containing the verb is.
The dog is big, but does not bite – two clauses joined by the conjunction ‘but’.
A phrase is a collection of words which does not contain a verb and begins with a preposition. This
can NEVER be a sentence.
Examples:
Into the house…
Over the wall…
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Problem Words
Know the meaning of the words you use: the exact meaning, not a vague, I have heard it before
meaning.
Examples:
Advice: noun – a professional opinion.
Advise: verb – to offer an opinion.
Affect: verb – to influence.
Effect: noun – a result; or a verb, to bring something about.
Examples:
How did the accident affect your health?
What was the effect of the accident? (noun)
Did the accident effect a change in your behaviour? (verb)
Ante: prefix – before.
Anti: prefix – against.
Assure: to convince or make a promise.
Ensure: to make certain.
Insure: guarantee against risk.
Examples:
You may assure someone. You may ensure that certain things will happen.
You insure your car.
Beside: preposition –near or at the side of.
Besides: preposition – in addition to.
Complement: to add to or complete.
Compliment: to praise.
Continual: repeated.
Continuous: uninterrupted.
Council: organising body.
Counsel: barrister, or advice (noun) or advise (verb).
Deem: to regard as, to treat as.
Example:
It was deemed to be a car, even though it was really a motor bike.
Deny: to assert the negative of.
Refute: to prove to be false or wrong.
Examples:
He denied that he had been at the scene.
She refuted his story by establishing that he was there.
Fewer: refers to things that are divisible.
Less: refers to indivisible quantities.
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Examples:
There were fewer than nine bottles drunk.
There was less wine drunk than expected.
If: conjunction – introducing a condition.
Whether: introduces an alternative.
Examples:
If he comes, I will leave.
Whether he comes or not, I will leave.
Imply: to suggest.
Infer: to conclude or pick up from circumstances.
Examples:
He implied that the case would be heard today.
I inferred that we could book a flight home.
Their: possession.
There: place.
They’re contraction for they are.
Uninterested: not interested.
Disinterested: unbiased or impartial.
Examples:
The man is uninterested in the result.
The judge must be disinterested.
Weather: the atmospheric condition.
Whether: a conjunction.
Spelling
It is absolutely essential your spelling is correct. If you are a bad speller, use a dictionary.
Do not use US spell-check!!
“English spelling is notoriously irregular and can be downright difficult. It’s because our huge
vocabulary (the world’s biggest) is made up of words from so many other languages.” – Melvyn
Bragg, A History of the English Language.
Do not use American spelling. Set UK on your spell-check to be sure, as American spelling has
crept into the Australian spell-check.
Examples used here are from Meehan, M and Tulloch, G, Grammar for Lawyers; and Truss, L, Eats Shoots
and Leaves. See your book list for more details of these books.
Punctuation
THE APOSTROPHE:
Most difficult thing about the punctuation of nouns seems to be the apostrophe:
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The apostrophe is added to a noun or indefinite pronoun to indicate possession.
It is placed immediately after the possessor. So write the possessor first and then add the
apostrophe.
Possessive pronouns (ours, theirs, its, yours) NEVER take an apostrophe.
Examples:
The judge’s ruling (possessor is a single judge),
The judges’ ruling (possessor is more than one judge).
The man’s coat. (possessor – man)
The men’s coat. (possessor – men)
A general rule for names ending with s or the ‘s’ sound.
Proper nouns of one syllable – add ‘s’, e.g. Mary’s book.
Proper nouns of more than one syllable – just add an apostrophe, e.g. Aristophanes’ plays.
The apostrophe is also used to show where there has been a contraction.
These should not be a problem in your legal writing because you should not be using contractions
of any kind in formal written work.
For this reason you should never write it’s in your legal work, because this is a contraction.
It’s means it is. When ‘its’ is possessive, it is a pronoun and operates the same way as – yours,
ours etc. None of these takes an apostrophe.
Examples:
It’s time we went home.
The dog has eaten its dinner.
OTHER PUNCTUATION:
Look at these sentences:
I saw a man eating shark at the beach today.
I saw a man-eating shark at the beach today.
Woman! Without her, man is but a savage.
Woman without her man is but a savage.
Punctuation is very important in determining the meaning of a sentence.
Full Stops
Full stops are used at the end of a sentence, so you must be able to recognise the end of a
sentence.
Commas
These are used in a sentence to indicate a break. They are never used at the end of a sentence.
They can be used to indicate that a clause or phrase has been inserted into the sentence structure.
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Example:
Some people are, so to speak, lanky.
They are inserted to separate items in a list.
Example:
He bought eggs, butter, milk, and bread.
This may be helpful when trying to identify a list for the ejusdem generis rule in statutory
interpretation.
Clauses
Clauses are joined by conjunctions. If they are not so joined they are sentences. This is important
when trying to join clauses with the wrong words.
Example:
We went home, however it took us a long time.
However is not a conjunction and so cannot join two clauses.
This is two sentences and requires a full stop.
We went home. It took us a long time.
Or We went home and it took us a long time. And is a conjunction.
However is an adverb and will generally be followed by a comma if at the beginning of a sentence
or surrounded by commas if in the middle of the sentence.
He was, however, very late.
Capital Letters
Capital letters are used at the beginning of a sentence and for proper nouns.
Proper nouns include the names of persons and things, e.g. Mary Smith, New South Wales.
Do not use capitals when referring to members of a class.
Examples:
The members of parliament will meet today.
The prime ministers will travel together.
Certain legal phrases use capitals, such as:
the Rule against Perpetuities.
They may also be used if a word or phrase is defined:
In this Act:
Child, means a person under the age of 18 years….