Answers: English "Legalese" vs. "Plain English"
For the answers to the Quiz: English "Legalese" vs. "Plain English", posted here on April 14, 2008, I refer to the online listing of offensive legal phrases in "Eschew, Evade, and/or Eradicate Legalese", by Prof. Eugene Volokh, of the UCLA Law School.
He listed "some common clunkers, and their simpler, more readable replacements -- "legalese" -- that should be shortened, replaced, or deleted.
The replacements aren't always perfect synonyms, but 90% of the time they're better than the original.In my quiz drawn from his listing, I avoided questions where the sole answer would be "deletion", but that option should be considered often.
Warning: Some of these changes also require some grammatical twiddling of other parts of the sentence.
Here are the answers, which you can confirm on his web page:
- "a large number of" -- many
- "adjacent to" -- next to or near
- "any and all" -- all
- "at the present time" -- now
- "cease and desist" -- stop
- "circumstances in which" -- when or where
- "concerning the matter of" -- about
- "due to the fact that" -- because
- "during the time that" -- while
- "in reference to" -- about
- "is desirous of" -- wants
- "it is apparent that" -- clearly
- "negatively affect" -- hurt, harm, or decrease
- "null and void" -- void
- "on a number of occasions" -- often or sometimes
- "on the part of" -- by
- "prior to" -- before
- "provided that" -- if or but
- "referred to as" -- called
- "render assistance" -- help
- "said" (as an adjective) -- the or this
- "subsequent to" -- after
- "the case at bar" -- this case
- "the manner in which" -- how
- "until such time as" -- until
Update: 04/16/08:
This post was referenced by Roni Deutsch on The Tax Lady Blog, where she had listed this Blog on her short "Blogroll". See her posting dated April 16, 2008, entitled "Latest Good Reads".
