Good Writing Advice

By: Ray Pellecchia

File Under: Miscellaneous

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Here's a guest post from Daniel Labovitz, vice president, Office of the General Counsel, NYSE Regulation, in response to my comments on Tuesday in this post about slogging through some of the more complex sentences in one of our memos to members::

Speaking as the primary memo-writing colleague on this one, I have to admit that you're not off the mark in your commentary. But in defense of the long sentence at issue, it's important to remember that these memos are legal sources upon which regulatory actions may be based. And while ideally we try to avoid getting too technical, and to use colloquial phrases and common-sense descriptions, we sometimes need to be very precise so that we foreclose any meaning but the one we intended. This can sometimes result in long, complex sentences that sound stilted, like the one you cited.

And besides, long and complex aren't always bad things: When I taught legal writing, I sometimes liked to refer students to John 11:35 ("Jesus wept", famous as the shortest sentence in the Bible) to show the power of short direct writing. But then I would point out that some of the most powerful creeds in the Western canon are complex sentences with lots of words -- things like the Lord's Prayer (2 sentences of 24 and 46 words, respectively), the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence (1 sentence, 71 words) and the Preamble to the Constitution (1 sentence, 52 words). Then I would suggest to them that they try to write somewhere in the middle.

Thanks, Dan, I learned a lot from that. Never really thought about the dual purpose of those memos. Now I understand the need for such a level of detail. Plus, you offer a peek inside this place that I hope will help readers better understand our process and what we're about. I thank you for that, and encourage our other colleagues to let me know if and when they've got an insight to offer from their respective areas. As a reminder to all, this blog is not mine, it's everyone's.

I also loved the writing lesson. You taught legal writing? You also taught good writing. That's some of the best writing advice I ever heard. Thanks for sharing it.