Avoid Archaic Language

Avoid Archaic Language

Why lawyers use words that no one else uses and why that gets in the way of communicating with clients, the words you need to delete and the words you need to replace, and why you no longer need to use such, said, and shall in your client writing.

Transcript

Welcome to Avoid Archaic Language! In this lesson, we’ll be presenting examples on-screen, some of which won’t be narrated, Please pause the video as needed to understand them.

I. The Lingering Impact of Old English

So far, we’ve learned how Norman French and Latin have influenced modern legal writing. But so has ye olde English—that is, Old English. Old English is long dead. Almost nobody has written or spoken Old English for hundreds of years. Even Shakespeare’s works were written in early...