Overview

Learn to become a great writer and master modern grammar rules with the U.S. Supreme Court justices as your guide. In The Supreme Guide to Writing, law professor Jill Barton cuts through competing advice to detail definitive grammar rules based on the nation's unequivocal authority: the U.S. Supreme Court. The book details a revolution in legal writing, with the justices progressing beyond the drab and technical for the deft and lyrical. With the first-ever analysis of 10,000 pages of Court opinions, the book pinpoints grammar and style rules that the justices follow--and describes the outdated rules they leave behind. Today's Court casts aside formality in favor of pop-culture references, contractions, and approachable language. In addition to establishing grammar and style rules, the book illustrates best practices with hundreds of examples of the justices' most brilliant sentences from the past several years. With step-by-step instructions, the book describes how to emulate the justices' writing styles by breaking down their strategies and techniques. It shows how Justice Elena Kagan lands amusing quips and weaves together down-to-earth analogies, how Justice Neil Gorsuch executes witty retorts, and how Chief Justice John Roberts pens unforgettable lines with understated style and humor. The best writing appears effortless, but it also takes tremendous effort. Legal writing even more so. The Supreme Guide to Writing provides a nonpartisan look at how the justices present their words to the world.

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9780197754351

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Reviews

Taking a unique approach as a DIY instructional guide on the art and craft of writing, Jill Barton's The Supreme Guide to Writing: Become a great writer with the U.S. Supreme Court as Your Guide from the Oxford University Press is essentially a complete, comprehensive, and thoroughly 'reader friendly' in terms of content, organization and presentation. * Midwest Book Review *

Author Information

Jill Barton has published two legal writing textbooks and hundreds of news articles as a journalist for the Associated Press, reaching more than a billion readers worldwide. She currently serves as a professor and the legal writing director at the University of Miami School of Law. She authored So Ordered: The Writer's Guide for Aspiring Judges, Judicial Clerks, and Interns. And she coauthored The Handbook for the New Legal Writer, a popular law school textbook now in its third edition, that aims to demystify the process of legal writing and inspire beginning and experienced legal writers. She has worked as an appellate judicial clerk, conducted workshops for regional and national law firms, and presented her work at conferences nationally, becoming a leading voice in the conversation on the best practices in writing.

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