Entries in Law (2)
Scholar Champions Clearer Legal Writing
Legalese is ubiquitous. It’s the fine print on the back of credit card statements, the license agreements for software, the warranties (and warnings and disclaimers) for new products. It often requires a magnifying glass and is considered to be convoluted, impenetrable, jargon-laden writing that is reviled by hapless readers.
But it doesn’t have to be that way, says Joseph Kimble, a Thomas Cooley Law School professor and editor-in-chief of The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, as well as the author of Lifting the Fog of Legalese: Essays on Plain Language (Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2006). Kimble spoke to the Eye about his advocacy of plain language writing.
Roy Jacobsen
in Business writing, Usage, Law, Plain Language
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Defending Copyright on the Web
Vanity googling: Many of us have done it, entering our own names in the Google search box to see what kind of tracks we’ve left on the Web. Sometimes the results are entertaining. I discovered that I have the same name as a well-known Norwegian author. (I’m sorry that I don’t understand any Norwegian besides “Tusind tak,” which means “a thousand thanks.”)
But some writers are unpleasantly surprised when they use a search engine to “find themselves.” They find that their content has been stolen. Publishing on the Internet has added a new dimension to the age-old problem of content theft.