What's the singular of paparazzi? Is graffiti singular or plural? What about kudos? Should I say empathic or empathetic? Is it a couple of dozen or a couple dozen? What's the correct pronunciation of concierge? Or schism? Or flaccid?

In this book of crisp, precise, and often witty pronouncements on modern American English, Bryan Garner decisively answers these and thousands of other questions that bedevil those who care about the language. Garner draws on massive evidence to support his judgments, citing thousands of examples--good, bad, and ugly--from sources such as The New York...

With expanded coverage in this new edition, The Elements of Legal Style features additional sections, many more examples, and a thoroughly researched appendix that contains 80 major statements on prose style--what it is and how to attain it.
Inspired by Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, this book clearly (often wittily) explains the full range of what legal writers need to know: mechanics, word choice, structure, and rhetoric, as well as all the special conventions that legal writers should follow in using headings, defined terms, quotations, and many other...

Originally published: Washington, D.C.: BNA Incorporated, 1961. iii (New Introduction), xvi, 506 pp. With a New Introduction by Bryan A. Garner, President, LawProse, Inc. This book tells how to brief and how to argue a Federal case on appeal. Its primary purpose is to explain to the lawyer how to best persuade a Federal appellate court to decide a case in his favor. It is neither a practice manual nor a text of Federal appellate procedure, being written on the assumption that all the procedural steps necessary to perfect the appeal have been or will be timely taken. Consequently this book...

In 1936 Piero Calamandrei, an Italian lawyer and law professor, published Elogio dei Giudici Scritto da un Avvocato, a wry collection of maxims, anecdotes and observations on the nature of the legal process. Translated in 1946 as Eulogy of Judges, Written by a Lawyer, it gradually acquired a reputation among sophisticated legal circles as the best lawyer's book ever written. Written by a self-described member of the "Piero Calamandrei Freemasonry Society," Eulogy of Lawyers revives the spirit of its great predecessor while shifting the focus to the other side of the bench. Preface by Bryan A....

In 1936 Piero Calamandrei, an Italian lawyer and law professor, published Elogio dei Giudici Scritto da un Avvocato, a wry collection of maxims, anecdotes and observations on the nature of the legal process. Translated in 1946 as Eulogy of Judges, Written by a Lawyer, it gradually acquired a reputation among sophisticated legal circles as the best lawyer's book ever written. Written by a self-described member of the "Piero Calamandrei Freemasonry Society," Eulogy of Lawyers revives the spirit of its great predecessor while shifting the focus to the other side of the bench. Preface by Bryan A....

Admirably clear, concise, down-to-earth, and powerful--all too often, legal writing embodies none of these qualities. Its reputation for obscurity and needless legalese is widespread. Since 2001 Bryan A. Garner's Legal Writing in Plain English has helped address this problem by providing lawyers, judges, paralegals, law students, and legal scholars with sound advice and practical tools for improving their written work. Now the leading guide to clear writing in the field, this indispensable volume encourages legal writers to challenge conventions and offers valuable insights into the...

This comprehensive law dictionary contains more than 50,000 terms and includes definitions of more than 1,000 law-related abbreviations and acronyms. More than 7,500 terms new to this edition include bioweapon, gazump, hacker, mommy track, unperson and zero-tolerance law.

Few people can write on the English language with the authority of Bryan A. Garner. The author of The Chicago Manual of Style's popular "Grammar and Usage" chapter, Garner explains the vagaries of English with absolute precision and utmost clarity. With The Chicago Guide to Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation, he has written the definitive guide for writers who want their prose to be both memorable and correct.

Throughout the book Garner describes standard literary English--the forms that mark writers and speakers as educated users of the language. He also offers historical...

The earliest standards for the game of golf included just 338 words and thirteen rules, which included what to do if your ball had the misfortune of falling into "watery filth" and how to proceed if your ball was stopped by a horse. The official Rules of Golf have since grown to more than 40,000 words and cover everything from marking a scorecard to determining whether a club has the appropriate roughness.

Two hundred years of revisions have rendered these Rules opaque and stylistically inconsistent. Those intricacies can be intimidating for anyone hoping to pick up the game and...