Legal Writing Midterm Reviewer

Legal Writing g) Avoid punctuations which cause ambiguity

- kind of used by lawyers, law professors, h) Apply the seven rules of clear writing
judges and other workers in the field of law
to express legal rights obligations and Rules in Clear Writing:
opinions A) Be clear on your point
Types: B) Make sure your point is communicated at
1. Informative writing once
2. Persuasive writing C) Have a structure. This is where you put your
3. Functional writing data, analysis and argument
D) Observe grammatical rules
Motion a written of oral application made to a court E) Be precise
or judge to obtain a ruling or order directing that F) Be consistent
some act be done in favor of the applicant. The G) Be logical and clear in your argument
applicant is known as the moving party, or the
movant. Persuasiveness (Purpose)
a) Rule-based reasoning
Elements of Legal Writing: b) Analogical (and the counter-analogical
1. Simplicity reasoning)
2. Clarity c) Policy-based reasoning
3. Persuasiveness d) Narrative reasoning

Avoid tautology Fallacy - an error in reasoning.

- This means doing away with unnecessary
repetition of an idea in different words. Fallacy of Ad Hominem
- from Latin argument to the man
Clarity (Purpose) - an argument rejecting a persons views by
a) Use concrete instead of abstract terms attacking or abusing his personality,
b) When abstract terms could not be avoided, character, motives, intentions, qualifications,
to back them up with illustrative examples etc., as opposed to providing evidence why
c) Avoid wide gaps between subject verb and the views are incorrect.
object
d) Avoid nested modifiers
e) Avoid dangling modifiers
f) Avoid ambiguous pronoun reference
 Legal Writing Midterm Reviewer
Appeal to Pity it does not follow that the mean is always the
- also called argumentum ad misericordiam correct position.
- argues that some persons conclude or make
decisions solely on pity, and not on evidence. Slippery Slope
The argument is fallacious in that the basis - argues that once a person allows an event to
of ones decision is pity and not reason or happen, another event will inevitably follow.
evidence. The argument is fallacious in that there is no
objective evidence to suggest that the
Appeal to Popularity second evidence will necessarily follow.
- argues that a claim or idea is true simply
because more people are inclined to accept Straw man
such claim or idea. The argument is - presents an opponents position in a weak
fallacious in that the basis of ones and absurd way so that it can easily be
conclusion or decision is not evidence but an refuted. The argument is fallacious in that
external factor which is widespread one deliberately misrepresents or does not
acceptance of a belief. include the strong points in the others
position thereby giving the impression that
Appeal to Tradition the arguers points are strong.
- opposite of appeal to novelty
- argues that the idea is necessarily better
simply because it is older, more tested and
tried because it had been used years over.
It is fallacious because age per se does not
necessarily qualify an idea to be better. Older
is not necessarily better.

Middle Ground
- also called fallacy of moderation or the
golden mean fallacy
- it happens when the arguer assumes that the
mean (or middle position) between two
extreme positions must be the correct
position. The argument is fallacious because