Garner on Language and Writing [Hardcover]

Bryan A. Garner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 7, 2009 | ISBN-10: 159031588X | ISBN-13: 978-1590315880

The nations' foremost expert on writing, style, and usage, Bryan Garner, now collects his finest essays on writing, language, and style, and offers them in this in this massive anthology. These articles cover the gamut from advice for beginning writers, to essays on writing successfully as a professional. Also included are hilarious chapters on puns, curiosities, vocabulary use, and other comical writing escapades. Further chapters contain solid advice on making oneself a great writer, grammarian, and stylist. It's perfect for anyone who works with the written word.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Since the 1987 appearance of A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage, Bryan A. Garner has proved to be a versatile and prolific writer on legal-linguistic subjects. This collection of his essays shows reveals both profound scholarship and sharp wit.

The essays cover subjects as wide-ranging as learning to write, style, persuasion, contractual and legislative drafting, grammar, lexicography, writing in law school, writing in law practice, judicial writing, and all the literature relating to these diverse subjects.

Some have called Garner a controversialist, and he doesn't shrink from controversy here: he takes aim at legal academia, at word-bungling law reviews, at writers who interlard their writing with overlong citations, at judges who use extremely arcane words for little or no reason, and at the many conventions that tend to mire legal writing in perpetual mediocrity.

In one of the most entertaining chapters -- "Bizarreries" -- Garner takes on judges who pun on litigants' names, legal writers who mangle Latin, and, in one of the most extended yet entertaining exchanges imaginable on such a subject, and people who take preposterous positions on wording issues (such as whether "Sincerely" is an erroneous complimentary close).

There are moving tributes to Professor Charles Alan Wright, Judge Thomas Gibbs Gee, and Sir Robert Megarry (whose last book Garner finished). There are piquant book reviews that damn the work of some famous writers, such as Lynne Truss (Eats, Shoots & Leaves) and the linguist Stephen Pinker, as well as enthusiastic recommendations of books that Garner finds meritorious.

In the final chapter, Garner collects "recommended sources on language and writing." This one-of-a-kind bibliography guides readers to seminal texts in virtually every language-related field, from brief-writing to playwriting to poetry to linguistics to general semantics.

In her foreword, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg declares the book to be "a 'must read' primer" for her law clerks. Anyone with a lively interest in language, writing, and law will find this book hard to lay aside.

About the Author

Bryan A. Garner is editor in chief of all current editions of Black's Law Dictionary and the author of many books and articles on legal writing. His 879-page usage guide, Garner's Modern American Usage, is widely considered the leading authority on general English usage today. Most recently he coauthored Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges (2008) with Justice Antonin Scalia.

Garner conducts more than 100 seminars each year on persuasive writing, legal drafting, judicial writing, and oral argument. Since the 1991 founding of his company, Dallas-based LawProse Inc., he has taught more than 90,000 lawyers and judges throughout the United States and in many other countries. His clients have included the United Nations, the U.S. Solicitor General's Office, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, the California Judicial Conference, and many state supreme courts -- not to mention dozens of Fortune 500 companies and more than 300 law firms.

A graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, Garner has taught there and at Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law. He has received many awards over the years and two honorary LL.D.'s.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 876 pages
• Publisher: American Bar Association (January 7, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159031588X
• ISBN-13: 978-1590315880
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.6 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #848,880 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bryan Garner is the award-winning author or editor of more than 20 books. He is a prolific lecturer, having taught more than 2,500 writing workshops since the 1991 founding of his company, LawProse, Inc. His works include Garner on Language and Writing and Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges, co-written with Justice Antonin Scalia. Garner has served as editor-in-chief of Black's Law Dictionary since 1995, and he is the author of the grammar-and-usage chapter in the venerable Chicago Manual of Style.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth the Wait! Buy this for a law student or lawyer you love...., January 2, 2009

By 

Buster's mom (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Garner on Language and Writing (Hardcover)

I've been waiting for this book to be available for more than a year, and it did not disappoint. If you love language, especially if you are a lawyer but not just then, you will want this book. Bryan Garner is my legal writing guru. I've taken several of his classes and own most of his books (except the one about golf). He has markedly improved my legal writing, but even more importantly, he has significantly contributed to my knowledge and appreciation of written English in all of its variations.

We have waged debates with opposing counsel using Garner as our guide: why on earth must "shall" be used in contracts? It need not, says Bryan, and this book explains why. Persuasively.

There's lots more here for everyone. If you love words and love language, I guarantee you will love this book and will turn to it frequently.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enthusiastically recommended reading for law students, March 14, 2009

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Garner on Language and Writing (Hardcover)

In a world where everyone is looking for a loophole, good wording is essential. "Garner on Language and Writing" is a law discussion from Bryan Garner discussing th many problems in today's legalese writing from all levels of discussion. With wit along with his wisdom, Garner's manual of law isn't just plain and straight text, as Garner does much to make his book entertaining as well as outlining things that should be avoided in today's world of legal language. Educational, enlightening, entertaining, Garner produces a volume with all of these qualities, with additional tributes to those who have made Garner and his career possible, making "Garner on Language and Writing" is enthusiastically recommended reading for law students or anyone who wants a better understanding of the jungle of the law.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good writing is good writing, December 13, 2008

By 

IndianaJane (Indiana) - See all my reviews

I love well-written books on using the written word, and this is a good one. Although the main focus is on legal writing, the book is accessible and useful even for those of us who aren't legal scholars. And for those of us who enjoy reading about the law, it is doubly enjoyable. Garner encourages clarity and precision in writing, which is always good advice, whatever your field.

The large and well organized final chapter, "Recommended Sources on Language and Writing," has added many books to my wanted list, and makes this book even more of a must-have for those who are interested in good writing in general and legal writing in particular.