Chapter 1
Outline
Introduction
Writing
Reading
Another damned, thick, square book! Always scribble, scribble, scribble? Eh
Mr Gibbon.¹
Introduction
One valuable prescription for clear writing is to outline a subject first then to
treat it in more detail. To fill this prescription this book commences with an
overview of the task of writing. This lays foundations for the remainder of this
text, which provides a more detailed consideration of writing in general and of
writing law in particular. In giving this outline the chapter also considers the
task of reading. There is good reason to do this. Writing and reading are
complementary tasks, because an author writes a text so that it can be read.
This means that a writer who understands the task of reading should, in
consequence, write a more readable text.
Throughout the discussion in this book the text will often refer to the writing of
a book. In part this reflects the fact that a book is one of the major forms of
legal writing. In part the text refers to writing a book for convenience on the
basis that it represents legal writing. Consequently for the most part what is
said generally applies to other forms of legal writing such as an article in a
periodical or a judgment of a court.
Writing
I think writing, any creative process, is a constant negotiation between craft
and instinct.²
Introduction
The discussion of writing proceeds in two stages. First the text considers the
general task of writing. This lays a foundation for the second stage which
entails discussion of those aspects of writing that are of specific relevance to
writing law.
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1
Duke of Gloucester (1734-1805). This was quoted in James Boswell’s Life of
Johnson vol ii, p2 n.
2
Nick Enright The Sydney Morning Herald 16 October 1996
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