LawProse Lessons

LawProse Lesson #141: Should it be “e-mail” or “email”?

2 Comments / Bryan A. Garner, LawProse Lessons / By
Should it be e-mail or email? Two weeks ago, the New York Times officially dropped the hyphen in e-mail because of “popular demand,” according to its editor for news presentation, Patrick LaForge. The Associated Press Stylebook changed its style to the unhyphenated email in 2011, but it retained the hyphen in sister terms such as …

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Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: toward.

Bryan A. Garner, LawProse Lessons / By
toward. “Toward” implies movement. It shouldn’t be used when the sentence would be served by “to” or “against” — e.g.: o “The parks and recreation department has no objections toward [read ‘to’] selling the West Suffield School.” Rubaina Azhar, “Suffield Holds Off on Sales,” Hartford Courant, 14 Mar. 1997, at B1. o “Perhaps he should …

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LawProse Lesson #140: Should the phrase “a Cardinals fan” be attributive or possessive?

Bryan A. Garner, LawProse Lessons / By
Which is correct: a Cardinals fan or a Cardinals’ fan? Last week’s lesson about the possessive form of Red Sox ended with this sentence: “We’ll know shortly, but don’t jinx them with poor usage (unless, of course, you’re a Cardinals fan).” Should that have been written as a possessive: a Cardinals’ fan? Preferably not. Here, …

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LawProse Lesson #139: What is the possessive form of Red Sox?

1 Comment / Bryan A. Garner, LawProse Lessons / By
What is the possessive form of Red Sox? The rule for plural possessives is to pluralize first, then form the possessive {woman>women>women’s} {shoe>shoes>shoes’}. But what happens when you have a playfully respelled plural for a word such as socks? That is, Sox is already considered plural: we say “the Red Sox are in the World …

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Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Miscellaneous Entries.

Bryan A. Garner, LawProse Lessons / By
Miscellaneous Entries. tinsel, vb., makes “tinseled” and “tinseling” in American English, “tinselled” and “tinselling” in British English. tintinnabulum (= a small tinkling bell) forms the plural “tintinnabula.” The corresponding adjective, “tintinnabulary,” is more common than the noun; it means “of or relating to bells or their sounds.” E.g.: “Tunes like ‘The Ukrainian Bell Carol’ and …

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LawProse Lesson #138: Why is “’til” considered an error for the preposition “till”?

Bryan A. Garner, LawProse Lessons / By
Why is ’til considered an error for the preposition till? Why can’t it be regarded as an abbreviation of until? That simply doesn’t reflect the history of the words. Till has been considered a perfectly good preposition in general English since about 1300. It first appeared in northern varieties of Old English around 800. Until, …

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Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Miscellaneous Entries.

Bryan A. Garner, LawProse Lessons / By
Miscellaneous Entries. timorous; temerarious. These similar-sounding words are antonyms. “Timorous” (/TiM-uh-ruhs/) = timid; fearful. Temerarious (tem-uh-RAIR-ee-uhs/) = foolhardily daring; rash and reckless. tine (= a prong on a fork, pitchfork, or antlers) is the standard spelling. *”Tyne” is a variant. tinge, vb., makes the present participle “tingeing.” tinker’s damn (= something valueless) is the standard …

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Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Miscellaneous Entries.

Bryan A. Garner, LawProse Lessons / By
Miscellaneous Entries. throw / threw / thrown. So inflected. *”Throwed” is dialectal, appearing mostly in reported speech of nonstandard speakers — e.g.: “‘He just changed direction on me real fast and throwed me,’ he [a cowboy] said.” Dan R. Barber, “Hell on Hooves,” Dallas Morning News, 17 May 2001, at S1. *thru, a variant spelling …

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LawProse Lesson #136: Is “good” becoming an adverb? Are we losing “well” as an adverb?

Bryan A. Garner, LawProse Lessons / By
Is good becoming an adverb? Are we losing well as an adverb? A descriptive linguist might well say so. And in the sweep of time—say, two centuries hence—it may well be that these sentences will be considered Standard English: “We played good.” “You did good.”      “I’m doing really good.” “I can’t write very good.” …

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Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: thesaurus.

Bryan A. Garner, LawProse Lessons / By
thesaurus. The plurals “thesauruses” and “thesauri” occur with equal frequency. The homegrown “thesauruses” is probably better — e.g.: o “In addition, there are the computerized thesauruses included in most word-processing programs.” Leslie T. Sharpe & Irene Gunther, Editing Fact and Fiction 204 (1994). o “Thesauruses also increased in popularity, rising from 22nd in terms of …

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LawProse Lesson #135: Farther vs. further

Bryan A. Garner, LawProse Lessons / By
Farther vs. further The best way to handle these terms (both comparative degrees of far) is to use farther literally and further figuratively.      Farther refers to physical distances {Timothy ran farther up the street than Susan} {From Dallas, it’s farther to Chicago than to St. Louis}. Further, on the other hand, refers to figurative …

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Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: therefore (1).

Bryan A. Garner, LawProse Lessons / By
therefore (1). Today: Punctuation Around. One must take care in the punctuation of “therefore.” When a comma appears before “therefore,” the preceding word gets emphasized {it was John, therefore, who deserved the accolades} (suggesting that somebody else got the accolades but didn’t deserve them). Or you can reverse the order of the words to put …

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LawProse Lesson #134: Punctuating around “e.g.,” “i.e.,” “etc.,” and “et al.”

Bryan A. Garner, LawProse Lessons / By
How should you punctuate around the common Latin abbreviations e.g., i.e., etc., and et al.? With e.g. (= for example) and i.e. (= that is), the usual convention in AmE is to precede it with a comma or a dash, and invariably to follow it with a comma {He trades in farm commodities, e.g., corn …

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Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: the.

Bryan A. Garner, LawProse Lessons / By
the. The pronunciation rule for the definite article parallels the usage rule for the indefinite articles “a” and “an.” Before a word that starts with a vowel sound, say /thee/ (rhymes with “bee”) {/thee/ ant} {/thee/ elephant}. Before a word that starts with a consonant sound, say /thuh/ (rhymes with “duh”) {/thuh/ bee} {/thuh/ condor}. …

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LawProse Lesson #133: Should you write “Plaintiff,” “the Plaintiff,” or “the plaintiff”?

Bryan A. Garner, LawProse Lessons / By
Should you write “Plaintiff,” “the Plaintiff,” or “the plaintiff”? Preferably none of the above. Ideally, you’d populate your sentences with real names — not party designations. Your legal writing will become clearer, and readers will more easily keep track of who’s who (assuming you’re a competent expositor).      In appellate practice, this common-sense recommendation is …

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Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: that (4).

1 Comment / Bryan A. Garner, LawProse Lessons / By
that (4). Today: Final Problems. Part A: Unnecessarily Repeated as Conjunction. One must be careful not to repeat the conjunction “that” after an intervening phrase. Either suspend it till just before the verb or use it early in the sentence and omit it before the verb — e.g.: “Mr. Siefker has gone through half a …

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LawProse Lesson #132: Using articles before abbreviations

1 Comment / Bryan A. Garner, LawProse Lessons / By
What is the right way to use articles before abbreviations? EPA or the EPA? An HMO or a HMO? There is no single “right” answer to this question. Conventional usage prevails. EPA is more common than the EPA when it’s standing alone (more on this below). But HMO is very uncommon — as rare as …

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Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: thank you (and its responses)

2 Comments / Bryan A. Garner, LawProse Lessons / By
thank you (and its responses). “Thank you” remains the best, most serviceable phrase, despite various attempts to embellish it or truncate it: “thanking you in advance” (presumptuous and possibly insulting), “thank you very much” (with a trailer of surplusage), “thanks” (useful on informal occasions), “many thanks” (informal but emphatic), *”much thanks” (archaic and increasingly unidiomatic), …

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LawProse Lesson #131: When should you capitalize “court”?

1 Comment / Bryan A. Garner, LawProse Lessons / By
When should you capitalize court? Capitalize court in legal documents in only four situations: 1.  When you’re referring to the United States Supreme Court {the Court’s opinion in Marbury v. Madison}. 2.  When you’re stating a court’s full name {the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit} {the Michigan Supreme Court}. 3.  When you’re referring …

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