The latest edition of the Massachusetts Law Review has published Attorney Janet Pumphrey’s reviews of two recent books on writing. Both books are valuable reading for all writers of legal documents and decisions, but provide useful guidance, as well, to readers and writers of all writing, legal and otherwise. The excerpts and comments by Attorney Pumphrey are valuable in and of themselves. The first book reviewed, “Point Made: How to Write Like the Nation’s Top Advocates,” by legal writing expert Ross Guberman, is specifically directed at the legal community, and advances fifty rules for clearer, more creative legal writing. The second book review is of “How to Write a Sentence: and How to Read One,” by literary theorist and law professor Stanley Fish, is of broader interest to all writers of any type, and Attorney Pumphrey’s review explains how this book dissects the basic element of all writing, the sentence, and breaks down this book’s instruction as to how to construct a good sentence.
