On The Importance Of Commas
A grammar guffaw from the nice folks over at vi.sualize.us
Editing Fast And Slow
Several months ago, I was working on the next in a series of articles for Texas Lawyer. I had decided to try and write a "how to" article about editing.
This, of course, was a mistake, because Murphy's law holds that an article on editing will take longer to edit than any article I've ever done.
But now I'm truly in the big time because the article is being carried in both the Texas Lawyer and the National Law Journal.
(This, of course, is in addition to the strong freshman year I'm having as the big man for the Delaware State Hornets. Although they grossly exaggerate my height by listing me at 6' 10").
So, I've got that going for me.
Basically the article is a list of techniques, many suggested by you readers, to make anyone a better editor. Most of the tricks are designed to make you slow down and think critically about what you actually put on the page rather than just breezing past what you thought you said.
Since I finished the article I picked up the book "Thinking Fast And Slow" by Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel laureate in economics. I'm only just into the book, but I already wish I had read it before writing my own little piece.
Kahneman describes how our brain has two different systems, "System 1" and "System 2" for short.
System 1 is that part of the brain that does things, sometimes remarkable things, intuitively and without conscious thought.
System 1 can tell in an instant if your spouse is angry when he/she calls. System 1 can tell if you were the subject of the conversation before you came into the room. System 1 may have largely driven you to work this morning. System 1 is what slams on the breaks or recognizes danger even before your conscious mind knows why.
But System 1 is the part of the brain that edits intuitively and with too little analysis or criticism.
System 2 is the conscious, complex, analytical part of the brain.
System 2 is the part of your brain required to multiply 47 times 13.
System 2 is the part of your brain that a non-master chess player uses to evaluate a position
System 2 is the part of your brain that makes the more careful editor. The judge, who does not know your case, will be trying to process much of the information with System 2 and does not have the System 1 intuition you have after living with the case for so long.
As I think on it now, many of the editing hints in the article are just ways to keep System 1 at bay and keep System 2 awake. I wish I'd read the book first.
Font Humor--Must Have
I wonder, could I wear this at the office?
Arial and Comic Sans versions also available at Not-My-Type.com
Ginsburg, The Originalist (Golan v. Holder)
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court released its opinion in Golan v. Holder, upholding as constitutional Section 514 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act.
The provision restored copyright protections to certain works that had been in the public domain in the U.S. but were protected elsewhere. The challengers contended that Congress had exceeded its power under the Copyright Clause of the Constitution and had run afoul of the First Amendment.
After the jump, you'll find out what an otherwise arcane opinion on Section 514 of the URRA has to do with Scalia and Ginsburg on an elephant. Are you going to get that kind of insight from SCOTUSBlog? I think not.
Continue Reading...Font Humor--Goth Briefs?
From the nice folks over at BuzzFeed.
I recently read about the American pedigree of this early, sans serif font in "Not My Type." I thought it made nice headings. Using it made me feel all nationalistic--you know, "Buy American. We don't need no fancy Swiss fonts."
Now it makes me think of Abby from NCIS.
Is This Going To Be On The Test? (Story Time For Litigators)
There was awhile there when I thought I didn't like history.
Like when someone was trying to teach me history and not doing a very good job of it.
History taught badly is a procession of events that I don't care about listed by dates that I cannot remember.
But actually, I love history.
I love it when I learn it myself or when it is taught well.
History taught well is a story--a buffet of characters that are related by their ideas and the times in which they lived.
It is drawing connections between Napoleon and Beethoven, connections between Degas and Debussy, between Churchill and Thatcher.
Which is why I'll delete dang near all the dates from your brief if given half a chance.
Let me explain.
No. It's too complicated. After the jump, let me sum up.
Continue Reading...
Story Time For Litigators: Part Deux (The Big Problem)
Recently, we left poor, Little Miss Muffet on the edge of a cliff. Her adoptive step-father, Dr. Muffet, had suffered a judgment in which his parental rights were terminated. But Dr. Muffet's lawyer "handles his own appeals." So he wrote the brief himself.
(I say "he" only because this attitude is decidedly old-school, and bespeaks a certain ego, which makes this lawyer presumptively male.)
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
But the brief in my (mostly) fictional story had a big problem.
And no, it wasn't the extraneous dates or the legalese or the gratuitous adverbs. Those are just symptoms that make up the "big problem."
After the jump is the big reveal on what the big problem is.
Continue Reading...
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