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Technology cannot replace your thought process and experience. Interactive Software Makes Editing and Proofreading Faster However, you can use software to speed both processes up and give yourself a competitive advantage.
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There’s no way to skip them entirely and still produce good legal writing. Proofreading and editing are both time-consuming. Stray or inconsistent punctuation can cause confusion or change meaning. Check for apostrophes, commas, unclosed quotes and parentheses, and other punctuation.Look for words that spell check gets wrong, such as principle/principal or statute/statue.This will help you to notice errors that you may otherwise mentally compensate for if you are not active in your proofreading. Search for omitted words and incomplete edits by reading your document aloud, backwards, or upside down.These errors are often skipped over and can be the most glaring and embarrassing. Review all titles, headings, the case caption, and your client’s name.Are they capitalized? Are they used correctly and consistently? Did you use any synonyms instead of the proper defined term? Check for consistent use of defined terms.An inconsistent mix of legalese and plain English could provide grounds for dispute. Clients prefer documents that they can understand on their own. If there is another way to express your information, use plain English. It’s easy to get caught up in details and lose sight of the main idea. Make sure that your document answers the questions asked and serves the intended purpose. Be sure to guide your reader through each logical step. Do not leave your reader guessing how or why you are making each statement. Check for logical flow between concepts and paragraphs.Headings can also be persuasive and subtly encourage the reader to adopt your position. Headings should provide a compelling overview of your document and can provide a visual representation of how each part fits together. Consider adding headings and subheadings to break up your writing to make it easier to read and remember. Are you writing for a colleague, a client, or a judge? Make sure that your target audience will understand your writing. Review for clarity and overall comprehension.These programs are inexpensive so you can afford to buy them for yourself. Use tools like American Legal Style for PerfectIt to ensure that your writing is error-free. The impact of a well-written document is worth the time it takes to complete both stages. Both are integral, inter-related parts of the drafting process. Proofreading is the process of reviewing a completed written document for inconsistencies, spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors, formatting mistakes, and typos. However, editing and proofreading are just as valuable and necessary to transform your text into good legal writing.Įditing is the process of improving content, clarity, structure, and substance. They don’t tend to value checking and correcting text. The Difference Between Editing and Proofreadingīoth clients and lawyers value key parts of legal drafting, such as researching and processing legal concepts, generating and organizing content, and ultimately writing legal prose. To make sure your writing always meets the highest standard, this article shows how you can split checking into proofreading and editing stages provides a checklist to help make your document shine and points to interactive editing software that can give you a competitive advantage when you’re under time pressure. The more stumbling blocks in your writing, the less likely readers are to fully understand what you are trying to communicate. If written work is sloppy, disorganized, or muddled then it fails because readers have limited working memory to consume and digest complex information. The difference between good and bad legal writing is that good legal writing clearly conveys its message. Legal Writing: Five-Step Checklist for Better Editing and Proofreading