The prescriptive principles often used to improve writing in general genres have little relevance to the very complex legal prose found in acts or other technically legal documents. This article explores some of the stylistic complexities of definitions and requirements in a Canadian Provincial Act, and generates and justifies fifteen recommendations for creating a plainer legal language in acts. The recommendations range from orthographic presentation, referencing, and sentence arrangement to complex listing, clause separations and punctuation. Although only the English language version of the Act is studied in detail, reference is made to the French version where that is helpful.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
GowersE., The Complete Plain Words, Penguin Books, 1962 (first ed.)—originally published by H.M. Stationery Office (UK), 1954. Based on Plain Words (1948) and The ABC of Plain Words (1951) published by H.M. Stationery Office (UK).
2.
FowlerH. W., Modern English Usage, Oxford University Press, 1926 (first ed.).
3.
PartridgeE., Usage and Abusage, Penguin Books, 1947 (first published in 1942).
4.
WydickR. C., Plain Language for Lawyers, California Law Review, 66:4, pp. 727–765, 1978, also Carolina Academic Press, Durham, North Carolina, 1985.
5.
CharrowV. R. and ErnhardtM. K., Clear and Effective Legal Drafting, Little Brown and Co., Boston and Toronto, 1968.
6.
GoldfarbR. L. and RaymondJ. R., Clear Understandings: A Guide to Legal Writing, Harper and Row, New York, 1982.
RedishJ. C., How to Write Regulations (and Other Legal Documents) in Clear English, Document Design Center, Washington, D.C., 1981, 1983.
9.
DworskyA. L., The Little Book on Legal Drafting, Fred B. Rothman, Littleton, Colorado, 1992.
10.
FleschR., How to Write Plain English: A Book for Lawyers and Consumers, Harper and Row, New York, 1979.
11.
MillusA. J., Plain Language Laws: Are They Working?, Uniform Commercial Code Law Journal, 16:119, pp. 147–158, 1983.
12.
FalsenfeldC., The Plain English Movement in the United States, 6, pp. 404–452, 1981/82.
13.
RedishJ. C., The Plain English Movement, in The English Language Today, GreenbaumS. (ed.), Pergamon, London, 1985.
14.
PerrinT., Better Writing for Lawyers, The Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto, 1990.
15.
RookeC., A Grammar Booklet for Lawyers, The Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto, 1991.
16.
Free Your Words: A Quick and East Guide to Clear Legal Writing, The Plain Language Institute of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, 1992.
17.
FernachN., La lisibilité dans la rédaction juridique au Québec, Canadian Legal Information Centre, Ottawa, 1990.
18.
The Decline and Fall of Gobbledygook: Report of Plain Language Documentation, Joint Committee Report by the Canadian Bar Association and the Canadian Bankers' Association, Canadian Information Centre, Ottawa, 1990.
19.
JordanM. P., Beyond Impressionism: Evaluating Causal Connection, in Technical Writing: Theory and Practice, FearingB. E. and SparrowW. K. (eds.), Modern Language Association of America, New York, pp. 102–114, 1989.
JordanM. P., Paraphrase Possibilities for Restrictive Post Modifiers in Complex Noun Phrases, Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 24:1, pp. 77–96, 1994.
22.
JordanMichael P., Sensitive Avoidance of Sexist Pronouns in English, in 18th LACUS Forum, 1992 (BrendR., ed.), Linguistics Association of Canada and the United States, Lake Bluff, Illinois, pp. 445–455, 1993.
23.
JordanMichael P., Openings in Informal Scientific Texts, (9:2, pp. 1–18, 1991), Openings in Quite Formal Scientific Texts (9:3, pp. 18–37, 1991), and Openings in Very Formal Engineering and Scientific Texts (11:1, pp. 1–28, 1993), Technostyle.
24.
JordanMichael P., An Integrated Three-Pronged Analysis of a Fund-Raising Letter, in Discourse Description: Diverse Linguistic Analyses of a Fund-Raising Text, MannW. C. and ThompsonS. A. (eds.), John Benjamins, Amsterdam, pp. 171–226, 1992.
25.
JordanMichael P., Towards an Understanding of Mature Writing: Analyzing and Paraphrasing Complex Noun Phrases, Technostyle, 11:2, pp. 39–72, 1994.
