Links

Lawyers need to develop a better vocabulary. But what precisely does a “better vocabulary” mean for lawyers?

If a lawyer’s main task is to persuade, then a “better vocabulary” is a vocabulary that helps lawyers to be more persuasive. A “better vocabulary” in this context means words that are civil, accurate, understated, and concise.

According to Simpson (2008), a persuasive vocabulary omits scorn, insult, sarcasm, and offense. Such language fails to persuade because uncivil language shows bad character.

A “better vocabulary” requires correct usage and spelling. If you misuse or misspell words, then you damage your credibility.

A good vocabulary omits overblown words such as “clearly” and “obviously”. Words like “clearly” and “obviously” signal weakness rather than strength.

Instead, a good vocabulary contains more understated words than overstated words. Understatement requires more skill and intelligence than overstatement. It is not more persuasive to say “many” rather than “three”, or “ferocious beast” rather than “dog”, or “self-seeking moguls” rather than “corporate officers” (Garner (1999) 123-126).

Similarly, a “better vocabulary” avoids modifiers such as “very”. Intensifiers such as “very”, which lawyers sometimes use to reinforce a proposition, sometimes actually weaken an otherwise powerful statement (Calleros (2006) 345).

Several commentators suggest that lawyers remove from their vocabularies “hedge” words, such as “probably” and “possibly”. But hedge words may sometimes actually help your credibility, depending on your audience. For example, if you are trying to persuade an expert judge, then the judge may regard qualified statements as more persuasive than unqualified statements; though the reverse may be true if you are trying to persuade a lay jury.

A good vocabulary avoids unnecessary legalese and other jargon. A good vocabulary avoids clichés, throat-clearing phrases such as “It is significant that” and “It is important to note that”, and other needless words.

Finally, a “better vocabulary” prefers short words to long words — the less involved your vocabulary, the easier your audience can read and follow your arguments. And it requires more skill, thought, and intelligence to express an idea concisely than to express the same thought verbosely.

To give yourself a “better vocabulary”, you need to increase not only the breadth of your vocabulary but also the depth of your vocabulary.

For both these tasks, we recommend you try the popular vocabulary-building software, Ultimate Vocabulary.

References

Charles R Calleros, Legal Method and Writing (5 ed, 2006)

Bryan Garner, The Elements of Legal Style (1999)

Troy Simpson, Win More Cases: The Lawyer’s Toolkit (2008)