Avoid Expletives in Legal Writing

Dear Legal Writer: If I told you to minimize “expletives” in your legal writing to help you cut words, you might retort, “I would never use expletives in legal writing.”

Alas, but you do.

Here’s what I mean:

🔹 Definition:

In addition to meaning a profane or obscene term, an “expletive” means any word or phrase in a sentence that supplies no independent, substantive meaning.

“There is,” “There are,” and “It is” are examples of expletives that appear regularly in writing.

They typically add nothing but fluff.

They drag down your prose and make it wordier.

Try dropping expletives from your sentences, and recast them with the subjects of the verbs doing the acting.

🔷 Examples:

“There is a delivery truck approaching our house now.”
-becomes-
“A delivery truck is approaching our house now.”
____

“There were three hotel employees who witnessed the event.”
-becomes-
“Three hotel employees witnessed the event.”
____

“It is agreed by all parties that the case should settle.”
-becomes-
“All parties agree that the case should settle.”

🔷 Exception:

As with all things involving subtlety, tone, cadence, nuance, etc., your sentences may sometimes call for expletives.

But most of the time, expletives should be cut.

Doing so is a great way to sharpen your prose and reduce your word count.

Fondly,
💌 Amanda

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