Legal Writing and Drafting #1

Let us be on the same page: when I photocopied the legal writing and drafting exercises and flipped through the question, I knew I was Mr. Munene’s dead meat. I looked through. Generic transitions. Dovetailing. Active voice. Passive voice. Concrete subjects. Action verbs. Subject verb distance. Sentence length. Emphasis. Single word emphasisers. Changing word order. Breaking pattern.

For almost thirty minutes I looked at exercise one and all I thought about transitions was political. That is, the way a country moves from despotism to dependency. So I asked myself: How does generic come in? Isn’t it misplaced? As for dovetailing, the least said the better. I read that dovetailing is the overlap of language between two sentences that creates a bridge between those two sentences. Doesn’t make sense. In my mind’s eye, I could see a white dove. That was fine. But tail? I was lost. I further read that dovetails are often created by moving the connecting idea to the end of the first sentence and the beginning of the second sentence, repeating key words, using pronouns to refer back to nouns an earlier sentence, and using “hook words” (this, that, these, such) and a summarizing noun. That is a lot of stuff in one sentence. Where is conciseness? Where is elegance? Where is brevity? What about feathers? I mean we are talking about a dove, right? This is my take: sentences should be able to intrinsically bond. If they cannot consult each other, insisting on quarrelling at the top of their lungs then why bother to “connect” them, for crying out loud? So, in my wisdom, I flipped through the question, saying, “Fighting, huh? When you are finished, please remember to turn off the lights”.

I also had a problem with active voice and passive voice. I told the members of my group that when I shout, then my voice is active; if I whisper, then my voice is passive. Makes perfect sense, right? But some loudmouth tells me this: An active voice is ordered in the manner of Subject, Verb, Object. A Passive voice is the reverse because you start with an Object, Verb then Subject. 

The same loudmouth goes further to say: In an active voice, the Subject is acting whereas in a passive voice the Subject is being acted upon.

Not to be lost, I remind her that in all the sentences there is not even one subject which has been mentioned. No Criminal Litigation. No Conveyancing. No Legal Drafting. An object could be a chair, a marker, a book, a mwakenya. At least, it should be tangible. The other members looked at me as if they doubted my entry qualifications. In consolation, my conscience is clear about the fact that I voiced my reservations on the way they handle questions. You see, some of these questions are very tricky and require a sharp mind to know what active and passive voices are in the first place.

I was tired at some point while handling the questions. Out of my creativity, I decided to google some of the questions. I started with concrete subjects because when I perused through the questions I did not see challenging subjects like Legal Writing and Drafting especially. 

In the search toolbar I typed: "Mark the subject and verb in the following sentences with an “S” and “V” and then revise the sentence to have a concrete subject. In some cases, you will have to create your own concrete subject.

1.       It could be argued by the defense that Mr. Smith was out of the state at the time of the robbery.”

Folks, needless to say, I got no relevant answers. I thought to myself: If google has been defeated, who am I, Lorot Son of the Hills, to know the answers. I wrote somewhere: To see Mr. Munene immediately. Why? Because he is the problem!