The ABA Legal Technology Resource Center scoured through the Firefox Add-on Directory and found four add-ons that lawyers can use to simplify research. Check out their blog post Firefox for Lawyers to learn more about CiteGenie, Jureeka, Iterasi, and Zotero. - K
Kenneth W. Davis writes a blog called Manage Your Writing, where he suggests weekly goals that his readers can use to improve their writing. His post from August 3 is especially relevant for those in the poverty law community:
. . . pay special attention to the results of your speaking and writing. Notice when you're understood and when you're not. Identify at least one communication strategy that works especially well for you.
What strategies have you come up with to make yourself understood, especially when it comes to website content, interactive forms, and other information that is being delivered online? - K
My first BlogHer breakout session, Owning Your Expertise, was an interactive session that fell a little short because of the large number of people that attended. However, I did take away a few key bits.
So what does this mean for legal aid/pro bono blogs? Public interest lawyers are smart, well-spoken people. You are experts in many diverse legal issues: divorces, parenting plans, debt collection, public benefits, health care, and so on. The media covers these topics daily. Why shouldn't they be using public interest advocates as their experts? The media gets good information, and your organization gets some publicity and attracts new donors, volunteers, and clients. - K
I like word clouds. You can quickly get a feel for how often a word is used in a speech, article, or other block of text. For example, below is a word cloud, which was created with Wordle, based on Technola's front page.
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With the many free online tools available, word clouds are extremely easy to make. There is even a tool for Twitter. TwitterSheep lets you create a word cloud from the bios of a user's followers. For example, a lot of @accesstojustice's followers use "lawyer," "attorney," "law," or "justice" in their bios.
However, other than quickly gauging a piece of content's focus, how would poverty law advocates benefit from word clouds? Or are word clouds just pretty images? - K
I don't enjoy reading legalese, so when I found Wayne Schiess' article, "Legal Writing Isn't What It Should Be," in the Fall 2008 MIE Journal, I was intrigued. Perhaps Schiess, the Director of Legal Writing at the University of Texas, could tell me why lawyers cling to such confusing language. (A note--for those who don't subscribe to the MIE Journal, you can find posts on Schiess' UT website that cover similar topics.) The article does explain some of the reasons why lawyers write like they do, and I now understand more about what causes them to develop their bad habits. However, reading the article convinced me that public interest lawyers need to kick these habits and write plainly all of the time, not just when they are drafting client legal education materials. Two of the quotes that Schiess used in his article made this point clear to me.
We cannot in justice to our job expect the client to employ us to interpret our own documents nor should we require him to consult our professional brethren for this purpose. -Sidney F. Parham, Jr., The Fundamentals of Legal Writing 72 (Michie Co. 1967).
If the clients can read the contract more easily and resolve contract questions themselves, doesn't that mean fewer billable hours for the lawyer? My experience is that clients--on both sides of the negotiation--respect the lawyer's ability to express ideas clearly. When they see good writing, they are less likely to try to do it themselves. While most business people can fake "legalese," writing in plain English takes practice. It takes real talent to express complicated legal, technical, financial, and commercial ideas in a straightforward way. -David T. Daly, Why Bother to Write Contracts in Plain English?, 78 Michigan Bar Journal 850 (1999).
Interested in learning how to write plainly? Check out these resources.
Whether you're a lawyer or not, I'd encourage you to try to write plainly. I know that it isn't easy, and, at least at first, it takes more time. But by expending a little effort, your writing style overall will improve. Two tips for how to get started and not become overwhelmed:
So try it. What do you have to lose? Perhaps it will save your writing from being one of Schiess' examples. - K
A blog post from Kenneth W. Davis, Sending Fewer Envelopes, caught my eye, reminding me that good writing encourages people to keep reading. Particularly for our client community, many of whom may not be strong readers, we need to remember that less really is more. - K
The National Legal Aid and Defender Association's Cornerstone Magazine recently published an excellent article entitled "Meaningful Web Access for LEP Clients: Examples from the Net" by Liz Keith, Leah Margulies and Michael Mulé. The article "discusses the obligation to translate website content and highlights emerging and distinctive ways that programs are using Web technology to help ensure essential resources and information are accessible to LEP clients." If you are responsible for client-facing websites, including your own organization's website, please take a few minutes to give it a read. -M
When writing instructions, your word choice isn't the only factor that determines whether people follow through. The font that you choose also plays an important role. Lifehacker reports that using clear fonts, like Arial, makes instructions seem easier to follow and the tasks more likely to get done. - K
In a recent podcast, Lisa B. Marshall, the host of The Public Speaker: Quick and Dirty Tips For Improving Your Communication Skills, covered a topic that trips up most attorneys at some point in their career--communicating with people who have different expectations for how conversations and communications should proceed. - K
It's always helpful to have a few interesting fonts on hand to spruce up a report, distinguish your PowerPoint, or to help ensure that your marketing materials attract attention. Most fonts cost money, but not at dafont.com, where all of the fonts are absolutely free. To load a new font on your machine, first download the font and unzip it. Next, if you're using Vista, simply right-click on the font file and select "Install" (same goes for Mac OS X, but double click and select "Install font"). If you're using XP, just save the font file to C:\Windows\Fonts. After the font is is installed, you can select it from the drop-down list as you would any existing font on your machine.
And remember: just because you can use a fancy font doesn't mean that you should. Accessibility is important, so be sure to use fonts that are legible. -M
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| 'alif ba' ta' by erinscafeamerician |
It's likely that every one of you spends a good portion of your day writing -- or perhaps avoiding writing -- briefs, reports, e-mails and so on. So today, Technola points out some free tools and resources to help you put words on the page.
Yesterday, I introduced you to Andy Goodman. Today, I want to direct you specifically to his April 2008 newsletter - Why Do You Do What You Do? While there have been several topics that have caught might attention - How High Is My Eye-Q?; Like This, Only Better; Click. Damn. Click. Damn. Click. Goodbye! - and briefly made me think, the April newsletter has stayed with me for a while.
Why do I do what I do? I definitely didn't have an answer when I opened the envelope. I know that I don't do it for the money. I don't do it because it is easy to leave the work at the office. My husband's answer, "For God and Country. Well . . . at least Country." wasn't very helpful. And copying from someone else on the WDYDWYD website seems wrong. For right now, I guess, I do what I do because I've asked to be given work where I could do the most good, and this is where I've ended up.
Through the process, I've realized that having an answer is important. It doesn't necessarily have to be the "right" answer, but on the days when everything goes wrong, you get yelled at and criticized, and your clients are calling repeatedly just to tell you that you're dirt, don't you need to know why you put up with it all?
So, why do you do what you? - K
From the title, you might be hoping for a guide to online romance in the legal aid and pro bono community. Well, I'm sorry to disappoint. This is not that article. (Maybe you want to head over and check out the networking opportunities at the ABA Equal Justice Conference?)
This article is really an ode to Andy Goodman and the resources that he and his colleagues produce to help progressive businesses and public interest groups "reach people more effectively." Usually, that means getting them tell their stories better. I stumbled upon Andy Goodman accidentally. I was looking for marketing and outreach best practices and picked up The Communications Toolkit from Cause Communications. Andy Goodman's name seemed to be everywhere, so I looked him up online to see what else he might know. My online research ended with me signing up to receive two books - Why Bad Ads Happen to Good Causes and Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes - and his newsletter, Free-Range Thinking. It took me a while to pick up the books, and I regret not reading them earlier. They look dense but are quick reads with lots of useful images and valuable information.
The newsletter is just as impressive. In this day of e-newsletters, it refreshing to have a small four page newsletter arrive by snail mail each month. It covers a wide variety of topics related to advocacy and communications. And true to his message, Andy tells stories to involve the reader. You can sign up for several of Andy's workshops on his site. However, if you want to hear how he presents for free, you can check out a recording at the Social Innovation Conversations' website. - K
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