Dear Legal Writer, When you still have too many pages and can’t find more fluff to cut, try this:

1️⃣ Fully justify your body text.

—That will cut lines b/c full justification fits more letters per line than left justification.

2️⃣ Working from the bottom up, systematically attack each paragraph with only a few words in its final line of text.

—> Your goal is now compartmentalized and easier to see: you just have to cut enough to make the paragraph not stretch onto that last line.

Make it a game.

👉 My first move is to attack each long word, one by one.

Use a thesaurus. I bet you can find some shorter synonyms for your long words that will work just as well.

***

Try it and let me know how it works for you.

🗳️ What’s your when-all-else-fails approach to fitting a brief into a page limit?

🗳️ What thesaurus is your go-to? I’ve recently been using OneLook, but I’m open to more and better options.

Fondly,

💌 Amanda

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