Reading Lists

My hiatus from blog posting is due to my hiatus from life as I knew it in general. Since wrapping up my clerkship at the end of August, I have been traveling throughout the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Unsurprisingly, I have found some of my lawyering skills applicable in my day-to-day nomadic life, not the least of which are negotiating, reading the fine print, and anticipating (and avoiding the consequences of) miscommunications or misunderstandings. And, of course, there is always humor to be found in the grammatical mistakes or meanings of words that are lost in translation from Arabic/Turkish/Nepalese/Malay/Thai to English. For a writing guru, these mistakes highlight some interesting questions about and the nitty gritty of sentence structure and subtle meanings of words and phrases that I simply do not otherwise notice. For example, one restaurant in Bangkok boasted “We are never close.” Just one letter off, and a changed meaning completely.

Traveling has allowed me to read more non-legal writing than I usually have the energy for at the end of a day of reading cases, statutes, and treatises. Reading well-written non-legal writing is an excellent way to improve legal writing. My reading list includes a variety of material (thanks to my kindle): a weekly magazine (the New Yorker), American literature, magical realism, short stories, memoirs, and non-fiction.

Even though it is sometimes difficult to squeeze into the daily grind, reading non-legal writing is an important way to improve writing in general, including legal writing. Reading allows you to absorb the effective use of written language and increases your facility with words. It exposes you to new vocabulary words. Look them up and adopt them, either in your speech or your writing.

Reading helps improve spelling, grammar, and punctuation.  By seeing how words look on a page, we learn how they are spelled–an important skill, even in the age of spell-check. Grammar also sinks in. Assuming that what you read is grammatically correct, as you read you subconsciously absorb how to form sentences and paragraphs. Well-written works are also examples of proper and effective use of punctuation. Pay attention when a semi-colon is used instead of a colon or comma and think about what makes the most sense the next time you face the same choice in your own writing.

Reading a variety of literature and non-fiction also helps improve your knowledge base and boosts creativity. In practice, the benefit might be reflected in a recitation of the facts of your case that humanize your client or captivate the reader. Boosting creativity also influences problem-solving skills that might inform how you frame a particular issue or strategize to achieve a desired outcome.

Of course, reading good writing is the most obvious way to improve your own writing because it provides positive examples. But bad writing can also be beneficial to read if you can recognize why it is below average and how it might be improved. So, if it is a trashy beach novel that fits your mood of the day or the week, don’t discount it as a mere guilty pleasure; it is opportunity to work on your writing.