Mr. Stride is far too kind -- and modest. He is a writer of the first order. You could do much worse than mimicking him.

Since the other writers here, who are infinitely more erudite than this prairie dog, have touched on an array of useful and aspirational modes for improving your writing skills, I would offer one that's a bit more pedestrian. Read comedy writing.

Good comedy writers excel at the succinct, and sometimes blunt, use of words to achieve their goal. I'm not advocating frivolity in legal writing (though I would be glad to see more of it). But if you can make people laugh with what you write, particularly if you can do so without "working blue," then you already have demonstrated the ability to successfully influence your audience.

Also, John is right about the importance of flow. Sentences and ideas should relate to and build on each other, rather than simply being next-door neighbors.

Apparently our current "taller, louder sheriff in town" aka Mike Fouts took some lessons from you, when he described you as eloquent and in the same sentence a pencil neck geek!

As he astutely noted, it helps one's writing skills to have worked for the "liberal wipe-rag" newspaper.

What has helped me most is reading what others write in the way of briefs, motions, etc. Think critically--what is good? What is bad? How can it be improved? How can it be made shorter? What was left out that matters? Legal writing books are good, and Garner's Modern American Usage, Elements of Legal Style, and The Winning Brief are chock full of amazing content, but what has helped me most is the critical reading of my colleagues' and opponents' legal writing. I also benefitted greatly from attending two different classes taught by Wayne Schiess, a legal writing professor at UT Law School. He has an excellent blog at: Link

...and don't stick an apostrophe before an 's' on every word in the dictionary.

Advice given by a wise editor who recognized I had a stunning potential for literary mediocrity. She pointed out that my writing was as relative and insightful as my banjo-playing. I thought she was being complimentary - but I caught on and finally took her note out of the frame and off the wall.

A.P. - thank you for making me chuckle. Other peeves: not knowing the differences between your and you're (I have never seen 'yore' as an alternate misspelling); or their, there, and they're.

Now, sometimes in hearing words you might hear the wrong thing. For example, in an audiobook about witness protection programs, the author was talking about having different vehicles. The first one was a black limo; the second was a leased white limo. Say that one out loud and tell me if you get confused. This phenomenon leads to funny misheard song lyrics as well (see www.kissthisguy.com).

quote:

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Originally posted by A.P. Merillat:
...and don't stick an apostrophe before an 's' on every word in the dictionary.

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This^^

I had some sort of brain lock that made me do this all the time. My old chief Sue K. beat it out of me.

...and probably a good idea to not call your chief "old" unless she's a male who has been known not to look upon that term with as much disdain as a lady might. On the other hand, if of course you're talking about case law, then Old Chief is appropriate -- to the defense bar at least.

Sign on the highway outside of Gatesville:
"Goat's for sale" -- Actually I guess it could be appropriate if they are saying "This here goat (is) for sale", then the possessive might work. But the other sign, on up the road at the cafe, "Pig's in a blanket, our specialty" bothers me somewhat.