Guides to Australian legal English

These guides teach the parts of Australian legal English and legal writing that cost international law students the most marks: the language mechanics, the citation rules, the register, and the assignment genres themselves. Each one stands on its own. You get the rules that matter, real legal examples, the reasons behind them, and a self-check you can run on your next assignment before you submit.

They are written for law students whose first language is not English, though several are useful to everyone. There is nothing to sign up for on these pages. Start wherever your marks are leaking.

Language mechanics

• Articles (a, an, the) in Australian legal writing

  When to use a, an and the, with the rules that matter most and a self-check list.

• Legal English collocations

  The verb and noun pairs legal writing expects: the court's verbs, the parties' verbs, and the near-misses that change meaning.

• Legal English for Mandarin speakers

  The five systematic transfer errors in legal writing, framed with dignity, with a check for each.

Citation and sources

• AGLC4 citation errors international students actually make

  The mistakes markers see most, each with the wrong version, the right version, and the reason.

• Quoting and paraphrasing in legal writing

  The two duties when using sources, the patchwriting trap, and the three-step safe method.

Register and clarity

• Legal English register: sounding like a lawyer in your second language

  Hedging, formality and nominalisation: how written legal English differs from spoken English.

• Hedging and certainty in legal writing

  The certainty scale: when to hedge, when to commit, and the checks that earn a confident sentence.

• Plain English legal sentences

  One job per sentence, actor next to action, and a fully annotated worked rewrite.

Assignment genres

• How to write a case note

  The structure that separates a case note from a case summary, with the tense convention and how to critique a judge respectfully.

• Legal problem questions: IRAC and its variants

  What each stage is for, the sentence patterns, and a worked skeleton.

• The memorandum of advice

  The answer-first structure, advice-not-advocacy tone, and the five named mistakes.