Brief-Writing Ninja Tip #50 Avoid Confusing Sentence-Starters

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Legal writers, it’s time stop using these:

Acronyms, numerals, symbols, and citations.

(Placed at the start of the sentence.)

Why?

Because placed at the start, they cause chaos.

Especially when they follow a cite.

We’ve all learned to skim past citations.

So if the first part of a sentence looks like a continuation of the citation it follows, we blow past it thinking it’s still part of the cite.

(As in the example below.)

Don’t do that to your reader. Instead, make it blatantly clear where one sentence ends and a new one begins.

Your reader will thank you.