Tech Tools for Legal Writing: Run-On Sentences (Part 1)
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Make them stop!
When I set up a legal writing course for associates, I am frequently asked by US or UK partners to make sure that the course addresses “run-on sentences”. These are the types of sentences that exhaust readers by running on, and on …. and on.
When I tell my students about this request, they sometimes get a confused look on their faces because:
the concept of run-on sentences does not exist in their native language; and/or
their culture’s legal tradition embraces long sentences.
In this article, you will learn about (i) how to identify run-on sentences in your writing and (ii) some tech tools to help you identify them more easily and quickly. (In Part Two, I will explain (i) how to fix these sentences and (ii) some tech tools to help you with the process.)
Relevant Tech Tools
Microsoft Word: Style Checker (Sentence Length)
Expresso: Extra Long Sentences
Run-On Sentences: How to Identify
Unfortunately, when legal writing experts address the topic of overly long sentences, they tend to focus on average sentence length. For example, you can find below some recommendations for average sentence length:
below 25 words (Plain English for Lawyers by Wydick)
about 20 words (Legal Writing in Plain English by Garner)
As a lawyer, you don’t have the time (or interest) to focus on measuring the average length of your sentences and making adjustments to reduce the average. Instead, you need something that will quickly help you identify the really long sentences - in other words, you just need to turn on Microsoft Word’s Style Checker.
Microsoft Style Checker: Sentence Length
You are probably already familiar with Microsoft Word’s spellchecker, but you might not be aware that the spellchecker also allows you to investigate the style of your writing. In particular, you can turn on a setting called “sentence length” that will highlight any sentence over 60 words. If you think about the recommended average legal sentence length of 20-25 words, you quickly realize that a sentence exceeding 60 words is an unnatural beast.
When you turn on the sentence length function, you can easily identify these sentences with line, after line, after line, of underlining. See below for an example.
Microsoft Word 2013
Style Checker: How to Setup
You can find useful instructions on how to set up your computer’s Style Checker at the following links: (i) Office 365, or (ii) Older Versions.
Expresso: Extra Long Sentences
If you are the type of lawyer that is really obsessed with controlling the length of your sentences, you might feel that 60 words is too high a limit for identifying overly-long sentences. In this case, I recommend that you try an online app called Expresso (www.expresso-app.org). With Expresso, you can flag any of your sentences that exceeds 40 words. For example, see the below screenshot from Expresso - note the 40 word limit.
Expresso
Expresso Warning: Client Confidentiality
As Expresso is an online app, you don’t want to use it for any documents that contain client information. In other words, I recommend that you only use it for (i) documents that have been cleaned of client-specific info, and (ii) non-lawyering documentation (e.g. marketing).
Next Steps
In my next post, I will explain some tips for quickly fixing run-on-sentences as well as some useful online tools to help you speed up the fix.