Elegant Legal Writing

Word for Lawyers: Macros and Keyboard Shortcuts

A useful formatting macro and my favorite keyboard shortcuts for editing legal briefs.

Oct 13 • Ryan McCarl

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The Death of the Mind

Thinking is the point of education.

Oct 6 • Ryan McCarl

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September 2026

Untangling a summary-judgment rule sentence

How to make a complicated rule statement easier to read.

Sep 28 • Ryan McCarl

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Two examples from the concision workshop

Two revision exercises remind us to get to the point and eliminate redundancy.

Sep 23 • Ryan McCarl

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AI Custom Instructions for Lawyers

How lawyers can set up custom instructions that reduce AI models’ inclination to make up facts or operate on unsupported assumptions.

Sep 16 • Ryan McCarl

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Concision motivates judges to read your brief

Concision is about more than reducing word count.

Sep 8 • Ryan McCarl

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August 2026

AI workflows and ground rules for attorneys

AI can enhance attorneys’ productivity if they use it safely and effectively.

Aug 31 • Ryan McCarl

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Legal-writing workshops with Ryan McCarl

Join Ryan McCarl, author of Elegant Legal Writing, for online workshops on legal writing, legal argumentation, and AI workflows for lawyers.

Aug 28 • Ryan McCarl

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Can you fool me with AI-generated prose?

Submit a passage that you know is human-written or AI-generated. I’ll reply with my judgment and the features or heuristics that influenced it.

Aug 24 • Ryan McCarl

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Legal-writing workshop: Concision and Plain Language

A live, small-group online workshop on revising legal prose for concision, clarity, and readability.

Aug 20 • Ryan McCarl

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June 2026

Litigators should think like teachers

Judges can be persuaded only by arguments they understand.

Jun 30 • Ryan McCarl

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March 2026

The legal-writing advice I give every week

Some principles apply to almost every writing and revision session.

Mar 2 • Ryan McCarl

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