Quick Proofreading Tips for Busy Attorneys
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____________________
Beth McCormack, Esq., is an Assistant
Professor of Law at Vermont Law School,
where she teaches Legal Writing, Appellate Advocacy, and Arbitration. Prior to
joining the faculty at VLS, she practiced in
the litigation department of the Boston law
firm Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and
Popeo, P.C.
____________________
In re Hawkins, 502 N.W.2d 770, 771 (Minn.
1993).
2
Id.
3
Laurie M. Wasserman, Too Many Wrong Mistakes: What Lawyers Can Learn from the “Dodger’s Divorce,” The Barrister (May 2012).
4
Id.
5
Bill Shaikin, Frank McCourt to Ask Boston
Judge to Keep Malpractice Claim on Track, L.A.
Times, Aug. 2, 2011, at http://articles.latimes.
com/2011/aug/02/sports/la-sp-dodgers-malpractice-20110803.
6
Mary Beth Beazley, A Practical Guide to Appellate Advocacy 246 (3d ed. 2010).
7
If using a Mac, hit the “Command” key and
then the “F” key, and then put the word or punctuation in the “search” oval on the top right of
the screen.
8
See Beazley, supra note 6, at 248.
9
Brian Porto, Reluctant Literati: Lawyers as Professional Writers, 2 V.B.J. 16 (Summer 2013).
10
William Strunk, Jr. & E.B. White, The Elements
of Style 18 (3d ed. 1979).
11
There are many irregular past participles. Usually you can spot the irregular forms if you just
look for a past tense word after a form of the
verb “to be.” For a complete list of irregular past
participles, look here, http://www.englishpage.
com/irregularverbs/irregularverbs.html.
12
Beazley, supra note 6, at 246 citing, All Things
Considered, “Magistrate Judge Jacob P. Hart
Discusses His Fight to Get Lawyers to Clean Up
Their Written Work” (NPR Mar. 4, 2004) (radio
broadcast) (referring to an attorney sanctioned
for, among other typos, spelling Magistrate Jacob P. Hart’s name as Magistrate Jacon P. Hart).
13
Dr. Helen Sword, The Writer’s Diet™ http://
www.writersdiet.com (click “WritersDiet Test”
on the top menu to run your writing sample).
14
Id.
15
Id.
16
Ross Guberman, Five Ways to Write Like John
Roberts, at www.legalwritingpro.com/articles/
john-roberts.pdf.
17
National Fed’s of Indep. Bus. v. Sebelius, 132
S.Ct. 2566, 2577 (2012).
18
To enable the text-to-speech function on a
Mac, open “System Preferences” under the Apple Menu and select “Dictation and Speech.”
Check “speak selected text when the key is
pressed,” then select the text in your document
and hit “Option + Escape” to hear your text
read back. On a PC, look for the “Narrator” application, which is located under the “Accessibility” or “Ease of Access” control panel, depending on which version of Windows you have.
19
See Beazley, supra note 6, at 250.
20
Id. at 245, citing Patricia M. Wald, 19 Tips
from 19 Years on th H\ []H