Legislative Style, Syntax and Expression

1. Apply the basic principles of legislative syntax and expression to the writing of legislative sentences.
2. Comply with standard drafting conventions when punctuating legislative sentences.
3. Compose simple legislative sentences that are unambiguous and free from common errors of expression.
4. Convert simple instructions into legislative sentences that are comprehensive and clear.
5. Apply a range of stylistic devices in composing legislation that will contribute to its effectiveness and clarity.

13 weeks, about 38 hours in total. Yours will differ.

1. Week 1Module 1: How Do We Compose & Express Legislative Sentences?

   • Unit 1: How to compose legislative sentences · 2 hours

     Understand the essential processes involved in writing: analysis, design, composition, and scrutiny.. Identify your personal approach to writing difficult sentences: planning, diving straight in, or working out key concepts first..

   • Unit 2: Types of legislative sentences · 2 hours

     Differentiate between sentences that confer rights, powers, permissions, privileges, and impose duties or create liabilities.. Recognize declaratory sentences that state legal consequences, effects, provide definitions, explanations, or state purposes..

2. Week 2Module 1: How Do We Compose & Express Legislative Sentences?

   • Unit 3: The principal subject · 2 hours

     Identify the legal person or thing that should be the grammatical subject of a legislative sentence.. Apply guidelines for choosing the subject based on active verbs, responsibility, or new powers/duties..

   • Unit 4: The principal predicate · 2 hours

     Select the appropriate verb for the principal predicate based on the desired legal effect.. Determine when an auxiliary verb is needed to give directions or make declaratory statements..

3. Week 3Module 1: How Do We Compose & Express Legislative Sentences?

   • Unit 5: Choosing the appropriate auxiliary · 2 hours

     Choose the correct auxiliary verb to draft commands, powers, permissions, rights, qualifications, liabilities, privileges, and directions.. Distinguish between 'shall,' 'must,' and 'may' in creating obligations and permissions..

   • Unit 6: Predicate modifiers & Context clauses · 2 hours

     Incorporate predicate modifiers and context clauses to limit or specify the application of a legislative sentence.. Use adjectives, adverbs, relative clauses, and conditional clauses to provide precise focus..

4. Week 4Module 2: How Do We Punctuate Legislation?

   • Unit 1: Punctuating Legislation I · 2 hours

     Understand the function of punctuation in legislation and its role in reinforcing sentence structure.. Apply standard drafting conventions for using full stops, colons, dashes, and semi-colons..

   • Unit 2: Punctuating Legislation II · 2 hours

     Apply standard drafting conventions for using brackets, commas, inverted commas, hyphens, and apostrophes.. Use commas effectively to separate clauses, items in a series, and to mark off interpolations..

5. Week 5Module 2: How Do We Punctuate Legislation?

   • Unit 3: Use of Capital Letters · 2 hours

     Apply standard drafting conventions for using capital letters in legislative sentences.. Distinguish between when to use capital letters and when to use lower case letters..

6. Week 6Module 3: What Can Go Wrong In Legislative Expression?

   • Unit 1: What can go wrong with subjects? · 2 hours

     Identify and correct imprecise linking of several subjects using 'and' and 'or'.. Avoid ambiguous modifying of subjects by correctly placing adjectives and adjectival clauses..

7. Week 7Module 3: What Can Go Wrong In Legislative Expression?

   • Unit 2: What can go wrong with verbs? · 2 hours

     Identify and correct imprecise linking of several verbs using 'and' and 'or'.. Avoid ambiguous modifying of verbs by correctly placing adverbs and adverbial phrases..

8. Week 8Module 3: What Can Go Wrong In Legislative Expression?

   • Unit 3: What can go wrong with modifiers? · 2 hours

     Identify and correct defective sentence modification by ensuring context clauses do not contain central elements of the rule.. Avoid ambiguous prepositions and conjunctions by using precise language and clear sentence structure..

9. Week 9Module 4: How Can We Develop an Effective Legislative Style?

   • Unit 1: General Considerations · 2 hours

     Apply techniques to improve communication by creating a logical structure, providing finding aids, and using a clear layout and format.. Apply techniques to improve clarity by writing directly, avoiding complex expressions, and limiting front-loading..

   • Unit 2: Developing a good legislative style · 2 hours

     Apply techniques to improve clarity by avoiding nominalization and embedding.. Apply techniques to improve communication by using purpose pointers and topic specifiers..

10. Week 10Module 4: How Can We Develop an Effective Legislative Style?

    • Unit 3: How to make legislation more comprehensible & concise · 2 hours

      Apply techniques to make legislation more comprehensible by following standard writing practices and using standard language.. Apply techniques to make legislation more concise by avoiding unnecessary detail, superfluous words, and unnecessary reinforcement..

11. Week 11Module 4: How Can We Develop an Effective Legislative Style?

    • Unit 4: How to make legislation complete, consistent & certain · 2 hours

      Apply techniques to make legislation complete by indicating the purposes of legislation and using broad terms.. Apply techniques to make legislation consistent by using the same expression to express the same meaning and using definitions for key concepts..

12. Week 12Module 4: How Can We Develop an Effective Legislative Style?

    • Unit 5: Should we draft in a gender-neutral style? · 2 hours

      Apply techniques to draft in gender-neutral terms by preferring gender-neutral terms, repeating nouns, and using 'he or she'.. Apply techniques to draft in gender-neutral terms by using plural pronouns, omitting possessive pronouns, using passive forms, and restructuring sentences..

13. Week 13Final Revision

    • Final Revision · 4 hours

      Review all modules and units to consolidate understanding of legislative drafting principles and techniques.. Practice drafting and revising legislative sentences to apply the learned concepts..