Introducing The Redbook
The Redbook is the go-to resource for authoritative guidance on legal writing. When I am looking for answers on legal writing issues, I turn to The Redbook.
The Redbook has been published since the 1950s. It is a collection of rules and recommendations governing style in legal writing, starting with citation format. It is updated regularly, currently arriving at its third edition. The current edition is a comprehensive reference book, covering everything from amicus briefs to class actions (pp. 353-381). It details abbreviation of terms of art (such as "per stirpes" and "p/k/a") and commonly abbreviated words (such as "ad.", "C.F.R." and "U.S."), grammatical usage , and punctuation.
The Redbook brings an unusual perspective to both citation and grammar. It is written by practicing lawyers and judges. As a result, it is both practical and sophisticated. It does not read like a law school professor’s writing manual. Instead, it reads like the thinking of someone who has been in the trenches, won’t kid around with you, and lacks the patience to put up with any nonsense.
This doesn’t mean The Redbook is merely a pragmatic guide. It is highly regarded by writers who are both literate and sophisticated. The Redbook adds a sense of style to legal writing that only comes from the insight of someone who understands both law and writing.
Features of The Redbook
Among the key features of The Redbook:
The above features enable users to grasp all of the core nuances of legal writing while also allowing them to see writing as an iterative process rather than as the product of a single act. It’s easy to view a legal document as a finished product, in which every sentence needs to be perfect and every footnote flawless. Yet such certainty is always an illusion in legal writing. Every legal document can be revised and improved, and careful attorneys know this, yet no matter their degree of experience, sought to get it right from first great to last. That is where a book like The Redbook comes in.
Principles of Legal Style
As evident in its title, The Redbook is first and foremost a manual on legal style. This slender volume contains a wealth of commands covering every aspect of writing and, simultaneously, a compendium of countless infrequent word definitions. On both fronts, Goldstein’s guide emphasizes clarity through brevity, familiarity and precision.
For example, he counsels writers to prefer "mend" to "ameliorate"; "stop" to "forestall"; "hand" to "furnish"; "aid" to "facilitate"; "find" to "determine"; and "keep" to "retain." In each instance, the simpler word is more precise, easier to read and exudes professionalism by sounding more confident.
Goldstein deploys similar brevity and preciseness principles in discussing sentence structure and grammar. For instance, one clause is preferable to two short ones, and three short ones are preferable to four or more. Likewise, Goldstein dissuades the use of 50-cent words (jargon, Latinate words and legalese) when 25-cent ones will do. Lawyers should not say "violate the racketeering statute" when they mean "break the racketeering law" (chapter 47).
In the book’s most frequently cited chapter, 24, "A glossary of common errors and preferred usages," Goldstein supplies 436 pages of unabridged commands that tackle commonly confused words and phrases, including: "clarifying otherwise doubtful expressions, correcting grammatical errors, preferring one word or expression to another, recasting awkward constructions, emending faulty punctuation and eliminating all extraneous matter," as Nielsen warned.
Using the Redbook for Legal Citation
One of the major differences between The Redbook and other citation guides is that The Redbook does not create its own "citation shorthand system." Instead, the Manual offers guidelines for how to construct a shortened citation for any source. The short citation system is based on the title of the source and other logical abbreviations. For example, the citation simply says "dhe si 6" rather than "DHS/USCIS no. 1-105 – 6 (Apr. 24, 2018)." In addition, all the guides developed by The Redbook assume the reader understands the materials relied upon by a judge.
Many courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have adopted the citation conventions developed by The Redbook. For example, The Bluebook also commonly used by lawyers, cites to cases as "42 Fla. 2d 834" without providing a full source after the first reference. Referencing the publisher is common among many citation styles, including The Bluebook. For example, in a corporate disclosure context, citing to "Dell Press Release." In an e-discovery context, citing to "PR Newswire."
The citation guidelines articulated in The Redbook are consistent with the underlying approach that is put forth throughout the paragraph. Accordingly, The Redbook avoids an exclusive focus on Illinois opinion law. Courts and practitioners cite to the most relevant authority from any jurisdiction.
Redbook Tips for Lawyers
Readers will benefit from incorporating the suggestions in The Redbook into their own work. Here are some practical tips from The Redbook to help the writer avoid common pitfalls and adopt effective writing strategies.
Well placed, clear and informative brackets help the reader. When citing a prior Texas or United States Supreme Court decision, as part of a rule statement or otherwise, it is a good practice to add a parenthetical saying what the case is about. Otherwise, the significance of the precedent can be hard to detect from the court’s citation alone.
When an appellate brief has the required certificate of compliance, no separate signature page is needed. The great virtue of this approach is that it saves five or six pages in your two-volume brief.
When you need a footnote , it’s a good idea-when possible-to put the footnote after a word that carries some possible ambiguity: "the court said it was an ‘impermissible burden on free speech.’"
To elucidate an argument or provide background, use a common type of table, called an indenture, which is unlike any other type of table. The columns to the right of the first column are indented, to make them visually distinctive. Use the indentation to distinguish categories of information.
As The Redbook notes, maintaining a uniform format throughout legal documents and correspondence is neither a goal nor a value. Think of the formatter as being responsible for just one thing: producing documents that look professional to clients, courts, and opposing lawyers.
The Redbook: How to Use It
Utilization of the book – and that has been a problem. Even I, a lover of clear writing and conciseness, overuse The Redbook. By overuse, I mean that I go into it as though it is the bible of legal writing. It is not. It is a book of guidelines about legal writing. So what does that mean?
It means I have to check myself when I go to the book. If you have consistent problems with your writing, you can justifiably look in that book. When you pick up that book, you should be willing to say, "Okay, I’m going to see if this explains why I have a problem. Then I will accept that and make the change."
Having said all that, let’s look at some examples of how you can use the book. I think the most important way it can be used is in the basics. The place where we seem to be struggling now is with the word ‘said.’ Words like ‘said’ have a long history of use in writing of all kinds. Style guides are full of debate about ‘said.’ Some say the verb should not be used because it is so common. Others say ‘said’ should always be used. What is a legal writer to do?
Look in The Redbook. Section 1.2 (c) of The Redbook states, "Repetition of a verb, particularly an active verb, can add force to your message. So can repetition of an entire phrase. In writing the statement of law, you often want to repeat yourself at least once." So what’s the answer? Use ‘said’ if you repeat a phrase.
The book also has very fundamental information such as the correct placement of punctuation. Let’s look at commas. We have two commas that are often missed: before and after ‘thus,’ meaning therefore. This book says those commas are necessary.
The Redbook is very good on explaining hyphens. The issue with hyphens, I think, is that we no longer even recognize that we have a problem with hyphens. There are other problems that we discuss, such as the conjunctions and/or and versus. But I don’t know of anyone who talks about hyphens.
I did a paper about hyphen use in legal writing and talked about how we had lost hyphen use in footnotes in cases. I got a note after the paper was published from a legal research professor who said my paper had changed his life because he really hadn’t understood that he could tell people not to use hyphens in footnotes.
I think that hyphen use is of critical importance in legal writing. We are using hyphens where they were once required. So to know how to use hyphens, you can again look to The Redbook and get the answer.
One of the questions that I think we need to deal with very quickly is the use of periods between reference initials – like the famous law firm Smith, Batchelder & Page. There has been a tendency to put periods between the initials to distinguish the initials from acronyms that proceed directly after the initials (such as, S.B.P. IRS).
The problem comes with the mistaken belief that the acronym should be treated as part of the name. The period use after ‘S.B.P.’ actually means it is not part of the name, so you wouldn’t put a period after ‘IRS.’ When you are a small firm, you need to make sure that people know what is your firm name and make sure that people know who you are.
There are many other areas of law where we have to include that period – for example, the joint ventures where they are listed alphabetically – each person usually includes a period. When the name is used in the sentence, there is no period – Smith Batchelder & Page.
I think the timing is right for greater awareness of The Redbook in legal writing. It is not the end of the world if you don’t use it, it is not the style guard of the U.S. Supreme Court, but it can be the guidelines of legal style that would be helpful to everyone.
Legal Writing and The Redbook
The Redbook is not just another reference book for legal drafters, arguing for more economy in their words. It has had a broad and lasting impact on the field of legal writing. For instance, in a testimonial, John Coyle, professor of law at the University of North Carolina, called it "the most significant work ever written about modern legal writing." The research bears out his assessment. Alan L. Dworsky, assistant professor of law at Duke University School of Law, has done extensive empirical research. He said in a 2005 article: "My study . . . suggest[s] that, too often, lawyers write in complicated, ordinarily ineffective language because that is what lawyers have been taught to do."
Prof. Richard K. Neumann, Jr., noting on a recent edition of The Redbook that Professor Kenneth Manaster, a distinguished legal writing scholar, has said "it is arguably the most important text affecting legal writing in the past few decades," reported several studies showing that the strategies that paragraph 113 of The Redbook espouses "not only produce superior writing but also work in the real world."