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Legal Drafting: A Beginner's Guide

Writing and Citation Manuals

Newcomers to legal drafting can sometimes face challenges in picking up the expectations regarding grammar, structure, and citation in legal writing. Below, find selected resources from the Law Library of Congress collection that can help to shed light on these conventions.

Legal writing can be challenging for both novice and experienced writers. Fortunately, scholars produce legal writing guides to help new legal writers know where to begin and help advanced legal writers polish their work. The Law Library of Congress has several of these manuals in its collection, including:

Putting forth the substance of your argument is only part of the process of legal writing. You also have to use a legal citation style guide to cite authority in support of your arguments. Two popular legal citation manuals are listed below. Be sure to consult the applicable court’s rules of procedure to see which citation style is preferred by your court of concern.

Further, for more help in creating and interpreting legal citation, consider utilizing some of the resources listed below: