Navigating this Blog

There are countless ways to style legal writing. In this blog, you will find various approaches to legal writing that I have found to be effective. Take it all with a grain of salt.

I hope some of this helps. Good luck!

Organizing your argument

You must organize your discussion of the law clearly and logically to allow the reader to easily follow your rationale.  Generally, you should organize your discussion according to the structure of the relevant legal rules.  If the broad legal issue you are analyzing has four main subparts, then organize your analysis into four main subparts.

Although you can use traditional paragraphing and narrative to separate your discussion of each of these sub-issues, I strongly recommend using numbered or lettered sections to make it easier for your reader to follow your analysis.  Thus, each numbered subsection will address one sub-issue, and one sub-issue only.

While each of these sub-sections relate to each other in some capacity, you should treat each subsection distinctly.  Once you have broken down your Discussion into separate subsections, you have demonstrated to the reader that the relevant rule at hand is made up of different elements.  Each subsection addresses one, and only one, of those elements.  Do not confuse the reader by either discussing one of the other elements that you have identified, or by discussing the law in more general terms.  Strictly discuss the element identified at the start of the subsection and how that element relates to the the ultimate determination in terms of satisfying the law.