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OSB Bulletin Legal Writer Article Archive

Bulletin Issue Archive

2023

Painful Prose:
The Difficulty of Writing
By Suzanne E. Rowe

The Legal Writer Writing Reruns:
A Glance Back and a Look Ahead
By Suzanne E. Rowe

The Last Step:
Proofing Documents for Format
By Suzanne E. Rowe

August/September

Transparent Transitions:
Cracking Humpty Dumpty’s Code
By Suzanne E. Rowe

July

Hooking the Reader:
Catching Attention With Case Introductions
By Suzanne E. Rowe

June

Pure Sentences:
Complete Ideas Without Additional Punctuation
By Suzanne E. Rowe

May

Conveying Confidence:
Communicating with Clients
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Thinking (Again) About Writing:
The Discipline to Become a Better Writer
By Suzanne E. Rowe

February/March

Modifier Madness:
Marching to Clarity
By Suzanne E. Rowe

To Mentor and Be Mentored:
Writing Beyond Hypothetical Clients
By Sarah Einowski

2022

Writing on Fumes:
Out of Altitude, Air Speed and Ideas
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Pillowcase Talk:
Insights on New Legal Writers
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Elemeno:
Muddling Words in the Middle
By Suzanne E. Rowe

August/September

Word by Word:
Anne Lamott’s Advice on Writing
By Suzanne E. Rowe

July

Parks and Recreation:
Reviewing Grammar in the Great Outdoors
By Suzanne E. Rowe

June

P.S. Further Thoughts:
Insights and Examples Using Reader Input
By Suzanne E. Rowe

May

Confusing, Isn't It?:
Making Sense of Tag Questions
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Just Don't:
Absolute Rules for Better Grammar
By Suzanne E. Rowe

February/March

Finessing Gendered Pronouns:
Using the Singular ‘They’ Clearly
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Tricky Little Phrases:
They Sound Correct… But Are They?
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

2021

The Pitch for BriefCatch:
Give This Virtual Legal Writing Coach a Try
By Katrina Robinson

SCOTUS (cleaned up):
Should Oregon Attorneys Clean Up Quotations?
By Katrina Robinson and Suzanne E. Rowe

‘It Sounds Right’:
When Homophones Are Wrong
By Suzanne E. Rowe

August/September

Sometimes It’s Sometime:
Know When to Combine, Separate Word Pairs
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

July

A Smattering of Ideas:
A Check-in on My Lifelong Learning Pursuit
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

June

Find Your Academic Atmosphere:
Lifelong Learning for the Joiners and the Loners
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

May

Writing that Sings!:
Imagine the Lessons We Could Learn from Pop Songs
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

Opposites Attract:
Context Is Key When Tossing Out Contronyms
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

February/March

Beat the Slump:
Finding Motivation to Write While Working From Home
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

On the Subject of Subjects:
Here’s a Concrete Way to Avoid Abstract Writing
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

2020

Shades of Gray:
Word Choices Offer Subtle Shifts in Meaning
By Suzanne E. Rowe

In Her Own Words:
RGB’s Lessons on Writing and Collegiality
By Suzanne E. Rowe

It’s Party Time!:
A Celebration of Good Legal Writing
By Rebekah Hanley

August/September

Intelligence:
Automation Further Blurs the Line Between ‘Stealing’ and ‘Sharing’
By Rebekah Hanley

July

Tips from a Master Storyteller:
Good Writing Comes From Hard Work, Stephen King Says
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

June

Writing Remotely:
Lessons about Work and Life During Uncertain Times
By Suzanne E. Rowe

May

Want to be a Better Writer? Read!:
Enjoying Others’ Work Can Improve Your Own
By Rebekah Hanley

Better, Smarter, More Efficient:
Some New-School solutions for Old-School Work
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

February/March

Avoiding Awkwardness:
Parallelism Can Change Both Meaning and Tone
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

They/Them/Theirs:
As Language Evolves, Pronouns Leap Forward
By Suzanne E. Rowe

2019

Writing in a Digital World:
Tips for Easing the Transition from Paper Documents
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

It’s Just a Matter of Time:
Tips for Improving Your Proofreading Prowess
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

Being Well While Writing Well:
Develop a Schedule, Gain Confidence & Embrace Feedback
By Suzanne E. Rowe

August/September

Juxtaposing Joys and Jolts:
Search for Meaning Begins with ‘Jeopardy!’
By Suzanne E. Rowe

July

Making Sense of Lists:
Twists and Turns of a Legal Document Require Better Formatting
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

June

Don’t Sell Short on Semicolons:
Increasing Value in Your Writing Portfolio
By Suzanne E. Rowe

May

The Worst Words:
Bloated Writing Makes My Blood Boil
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

Reader’s Block:
Finding Your Focus for the Written Word
By Suzanne E. Rowe

February/March

More Bar Talk:
A Grammarian Walks Into...
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Irregularity and Other Challenges
Addressing Tricky Verbs
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

2018

Avoid Ethical Landmines:
A Grammarian Walks Into...
By Suzanne E. Rowe

First Impressions:
Your Professional Bio is Legal Writing, Too
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

Reader Response:
12 Years of Pet Peeves and Curmudgeonly Fun
By Suzanne E. Rowe

August/September

Avoid Looking Small:
Steer Clear of the Words that Weaken Us
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

July

Take the Bait:
Bodacious ‘B’ Words for Brilliant Writing
By Suzanne E. Rowe

June

The Error of Extendification:
When Longer Isn’t Better
By Suzanne E. Rowe

May

From Quarks to Galaxies:
Zoom In and Out to Become a Better Writer
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Toes, Cakes and Eggcorns:
Phrases Change, Meanings Stay the Same
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

February/March

Make Fewer Mistakes:
Evolution Doesn't Excuse Word Misuse
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

An Economical Effect:
Esquivalience – And Excellent ‘E’ Words
By Suzanne E. Rowe

2017

Accepting Critisim with Grace:
Ignoring Feedback Limits Your Ability to Grow and Improve
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

Casting the Dice:
The Definitive Definition of D Words
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Little Letters:
How to Say ‘Thanks,’ ‘No, Thanks’ and ‘I’m Sorry’
By Suzanne E. Rowe

August/September

Supreme Writing:
Welcoming Our Newest Justice
By Suzanne E. Rowe

July

Avoiding Plagiarism:
Give Credit Where It’s Due by Taking Careful Notes
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

June

The Progressives, Past and Present:
Don't Leave Your Readers Hanging by Overusing the Wrong Tense
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

May

Modifier Fighters:
Finding and Fixing Misplaced, Squinting and Dangling Modifiers
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

Nominalizations:
How to Ruin Perfectly Good Verbs and Adverbs
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

February/March

An Exercise Regimen:
Writing for the New Year
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

Time Capsule:
Writing Rules from the Turn of the Century
By Suzanne E. Rowe

2016

Beyond Writing:
Conversations wth the Bench
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Mind Your Ps:
Avoiding Miscues
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Reflections:
Ten Years with the Legal Writer
By Suzanne E. Rowe

August/September

Empty Clichés:
The Twinkies in Legal Writing
By Suzanne E. Rowe

July

Professional Conversations:
Talking Before Writing
By Suzanne E. Rowe

June

Language at Gettysburg:
A Study of Style
By Suzanne E. Rowe

May

E-Communication Etiquette:
Notes on Electronic Professionalism
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

Latin in Legal Writing:
When to Use It, How, and What It Means
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

February/March

Confessions:
The Mistakes Legal Writing Professors Make, and How We Fix Them
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost, with Megan McAlpin, Joan Rocklin & Suzanne Rowe

Number Words:
As Easy as 1, 2, 3
By Suzanne E. Rowe

2015

Hardly Hyperbole:
How to Handle Hubris
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Brevity:
Readers Respond
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Ready to Write:
Transferring Writing Skills from Law School to Law Practice
By Megan McAlpin

August/September

Kind Regards and Other Affronts:
Another Look at Professional Email
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

July

Dashes and Dots:
Decoding Hyphens, Dashes and Ellipses
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

June

A Worthwhile Skill:
The Upside of Diagramming Sentences
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

May

Tricky Little Words:
The Special Team of the Grammar Squad
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

Brevity: A Challenge
By Suzanne E. Rowe

February/March

Mental Shrinkage:
The Many Costs of Multitasking
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

“C” Change:
Compelling Compliments and Confrontations
By Suzanne E. Rowe

2014

Difficult Conversations:
Talking About Bad Writing
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Think Different:
The End of the Adverb?
By Suzanne E. Rowe

From the Mail Bag:
Responses to Readers
By Suzanne E. Rowe

August/September

Run-on Sentence Outbreak! Examine Emails for Infection
By Suzanne E. Rowe

July

Keep Learning:
Thinking About Writing, Part II
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

June

Avoiding Awkardness:
Parallels in Grammar and Etiquette
By Suzanne E. Rowe

May

Plainish English:
Write As You Speak, Unless...
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

Finding a Good Book:
Why Reading Good Writing Will Make You a Better Writer
By Megan McAlpin

February/March

Verboten:
Vacuous Verbiage on Valentine’s Day
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Thinking About Writing:
The Discipline to Become a Better Writer
By Suzanne E. Rowe

2013

Autoantonymns:
Words That Mean Their Opposites
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Why You’ll Never Be a Good Writer:
And Why You Should Still Keep Trying
By Megan McAlpin

Take Note!
Creating Knowledge Through Notes
By Suzanne E. Rowe

August/September

Wishful Thinking:
If the Subjunctive Were Easy
By Suzanne E. Rowe

July

Mentoring Legal Writers:
Overcoming ‘Illusory Superiority’
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

June

Breaking the Habits of the Inefficient:
Procrastination and Writer's Block
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

May

Taken to Task:
Touch Up Your “T” Words
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Cutting the Clutter:
Spring Cleaning for Writing
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

February/March

Pure Sentences:
Punctuation Free
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Readers’ Pet Peeves:
A Brief Collection of Annoyances and Goat-Getters
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

2012

Future Shock:
Writing in a Brave New World
By Suzanne E. Rowe

A Matter of Style:
About That Legal Writing
By Megan McAlpin

F-Words:
The First Flames of Fall
By Suzanne E. Rowe

August/September

Happy Punctuation Day!
Readers’ Haiku Celebration
By Suzanne E. Rowe

July

Adjective Order:
A Quick, Easy Guide
By Suzanne E. Rowe

June

“G” is for Graft:
A Gaggle of Great “G” Words
By Suzanne E. Rowe

May

Primer on Pronouns:
Common Mistakes
By Elizabeth Frost

Commas for My Class
By Suzanne E. Rowe

February/March

The Problem with Shall
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

Right as Rain:
Remarkable and Revealing “R” Words
By Suzanne E. Rowe

2011

Web-based Authorities:
Reliable Resources for the Wired Writer
By Elizabeth Ruiz Frost

Spell Czech:
Amusing Mistakes Your Computer Won’t Catch
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Drawing with Words:
Creating Clear, Colorful Writing
By Megan McAlpin

August/September

Let the Festivities Begin! National Punctuation Day
By Suzanne E. Rowe

July

Building Bridges:
Connecting Islands of Ideas
By Suzanne E. Rowe

June

The Formula:
Becoming — or Hiring — a Capable Legal Writer
By Rebekah Hanley

May

Celebrating Dependence:
The Joys of Subordinate Clauses
By Megan McAlpin

What's Your Point?: Tips for Writing Clearly
By M.H. Sam Jacobson

February/March

Notes on Quotes:
When and How to Borrow Language
By Rebekah Hanley

Painful Prose:
The Difficulty of Writing
By Suzanne E. Rowe

2010

Back to Basics:
Subjects, Verbs, Complete Sentences and Active Voice
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Readers Write:
Two More Years with Legal Writers
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Interesting Eyes:
Word Choices V
By Suzanne E. Rowe

August/September

Are You Dense? Editing Obtuse Writing
By M.H. Sam Jacobson

July

Which Is That? Restrictions for Clarity
By Suzanne E. Rowe

June

Five Tools for Writing Fixes:
Stocking the Legal Writer's Toolbox
By Tenielle Fordyce-Ruff

May

Taskus Interruptus:
Good Writing Requires Concentration
By M.H. Sam Jacobson

Conquering the Colon:
The Adventures of Advanced Punctuation
By Suzanne E. Rowe

February/March

Proper Placement:
The Humor of Misplaced Modifers
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Appalling Etiquette:
Writing As a Professional
By Suzanne E. Rowe

2009

Constructive Criticism:
A Generous Bonus in Down Economy
By Rebekah Hanley

Punctuation You Can Learn to Love: Six Simple Steps to Correct Commas
By Tenielle Fordyce-Ruff

Perfect Tenses:
The Timing of Verbs
By Suzanne E. Rowe

August/September

Lessons from the Magic Kingdom:
A Legal Writer Reflects on Summer Vacation
By Rebekah Hanley

July

Running On? Life Support for Sentences
By Suzanne E. Rowe

June

Clear or Confusing? When Repetition Works (and Doesn't)
By Suzanne E. Rowe

May

Word Choices IV:
Too Close for Comfort?
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Word Choices III:
Verb pairs that puzzle
By Suzanne E. Rowe

February/March

Making it Plain:
In love with legalese?
By Megan McAlpin

Resolutions:
A new writing process for the new year
By Rebekah Hanley

2008

A Shopper’s Guide:
Gifts for your legal writer
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Signaling Support:
Citation to Text
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Silencing the Novelist Within:
Squelching Creative Writing
By Megan McAlpin

August/September

Mea Culpa:
Mistakes of a Writing Column Writer
By Suzanne E. Rowe

July

Reader-Friendly Transitions:
Showing the way from here to there
By Suzanne E. Rowe

June

Keep it Simple:
‘Short and Sweet’ Brings Clarity to Legal Writing
By Suzanne E. Rowe

May

E-Writing tips:
4 btr comm
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Writing with Oregon Style:
Gee, What Are We to Do?
By Suzanne E. Rowe

February/March

Problems with Pronouns:
Replacing Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Word Choices II:
More Pairs that Puzzle
By Suzanne E. Rowe

2007

A Parallel Universe:
Keeping the Grammatical World in Order
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Devilish Details:
Legal Writing is Precise Writing
By Suzanne E. Rowe

The Beauty of the Verb:
Creating a Picture in Every Sentence
By M. H. Sam Jacobson

August/September

Abuse of Discretion:
Beheadings, Widows and Orphans, Oh My!
By Suzanne E. Rowe

July

Writing with Clarity:
Finding and Fixing the Passive Voice
By Megan McAlpin

June

Finessing Gender Pronouns:
When “He” or “She” Just Won't Do
By Suzanne E. Rowe

May

Comma Power:
A punctuation mark with clout
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Word Choices:
Pairs that Puzzle
By Suzanne E. Rowe

February/March

Three Steps for Removing the Muck in Writing
By Joan Malmud

Know Your Nouns:
Perplexing plurals and possessives
By Suzanne E. Rowe

2006

Perfect Proofing:
10 steps towards error-free documents
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Six To Nix:
Grammar rules to leave behind
By Suzanne E. Rowe

Unblocking Writer‘s Block:
Moving ideas from head to page
By Suzanne E. Rowe