{"id":2771,"date":"2026-04-15T08:55:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T15:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/?p=2771"},"modified":"2026-04-15T08:55:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T15:55:16","slug":"whatever-you-think-you-can-write","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/2026\/04\/15\/whatever-you-think-you-can-write\/","title":{"rendered":"“Whatever you think you can write.”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

So says the wonderful Bryan Garner<\/a> in today’s LawProse Lesson<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Anything that can be thought <\/em>can be written<\/em>. That dictum is both challenge and liberation for the legal writer. If a concept can take shape in your mind\u2014even faintly, even clumsily\u2014it can be captured in words. Law thrives on precision, but precision starts with the audacity to express what seems unsayable. A writer who believes that every thought has verbal form never hides behind \u201cit\u2019s too complicated.\u201d If you can think it, you can write it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        The difficulty usually isn\u2019t the idea; it\u2019s the fog around it. Lawyers often mistake mental blur for legal complexity. The cure isn\u2019t jargon, but clarity. The discipline lies in breaking a tangled concept into short, declarative sentences until logic emerges into daylight. Language follows thought, and thought sharpens through writing. The page becomes the proving ground where vague notions either stand or collapse under scrutiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        So next time your argument feels \u201cimpossible to phrase,\u201d remember: that\u2019s not failure but friction. It\u2019s the mind\u2019s way of demanding clearer thought. Keep chiseling. Write what you mean, then refine until every clause earns its keep. Legal writing isn\u2019t transcription\u2014it\u2019s translation: turning reasoning into language that compels. When you hold nothing back in that translation, your thinking and your advocacy gain power. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

You should certainly subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So says the wonderful Bryan Garner in today’s LawProse Lesson. Anything that can be thought can be written. That dictum is both challenge and liberation for the legal writer. If a concept can take shape in your mind\u2014even faintly, even clumsily\u2014it can be … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[42,43,89,109],"class_list":["post-2771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-roberts-posts","tag-for-educators","tag-for-students","tag-resources-3","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2772,"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2771\/revisions\/2772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}