如何撰写律师函(英)

The rules of grammar that you learned in school are not universal. The readers of your letter may have learned different rules. Write the letter so that no matter what rules they learned the letter is clear and unambiguous.

　　Be consistent in your use of grammar. Be aware of such things as where you put ending quote marks, whether you place commas after years and states, and similar variations in style. Many rules of grammar are a matter of choice, but your choice should be i

nternally consistent within the letter.

　　Define a word by capitalizing it and putting it in quotes. Capitalizing a word indicates that you intend it to have a special meaning. The following is a sample clause for defining a term:

　　"Wherever used in this letter, the word "Goods" shall mean the goods that _________ agreed to purchase from _________ under the Contract."

　　Define words when first used. Instead of writing a section of definitions at the beginning or end of a long letter, consider defining terms and concepts as they appear in the letter. This will make it easier for the reader to follow.

　　Avoid needless and flowery words. Think of elementary school when you had to reduce fractions to the "lowest common denominator." That's what good writing is all about. A letter written for the lowest common denominator is understood by every reader. Eliminate needless words. Avoid flowery words.

　　Be direct and frank. There is no sense beating around the bush in legal letter writing. Just say what you mean. If you leave the reader wondering what you mean, your letter will only stir the imagination instead of prompting some action.

　　Study The Elements of Style. The full text of the 1918 classic by William Strunk is now available on Columbia's Internet site at http://www.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/strunk. This means that even if you left your copy on your bedstand at home, you can quickly go online and search the full text of The Elements of Style, where you will find these simple rules among others (as you can see, I am a old student of this text):

　　"Make the paragraph the unit of composition: one paragraph to each topic."

　　"As a rule, begin each paragraph with a topic sentence; end it in conformity with the beginning."

　　"Use the active voice."

　　"Put statements in positive form."

　　"Omit needless words."

　　"Avoid a succession of loose sentences."

　　"Express co-ordinate ideas in similar form."

　　"Keep related words together."

　　"In summaries, keep to one tense."

　　"Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end."

　　Cleaning Up

　　Now that you have the letter written, it's time to do some cleanup work before you hit the send button.

　　Let your secretary or paralegal read it. Not only will your staff frequently find spelling and grammar errors missed by your word processor's spell checker, but they will find inconsistencies and confusing areas that you missed when drafting.

　　Number every page of the letter, and staple the letter. If the letter is more than one page long, then it is important to number the pages because they will invariably get out of order. Place the following at the top left corner of each page after the first:

　　Recipient's name _________

　　Date _________

　　Page _________

　　Sign the letter in blue ink, not black ink. This will make it easier to differentiate the signed original letter from photocopies, and it will make it more difficult for someone to change your letter after you send it.

　　Computerized Letter Writing Tips

　　My wife Cathy said I have to put this way at the end here because this article is about letter writing and not computers. She thinks I love wrestling with computers as much as I love playing with words. She's right. In my first three drafts this section was on page one.

　　But I think anyone who likes to play with words should play with them on a computer. That's where they really dance. And when you've written 31,250 letters, as my earlier calculations indicate I may have written in my practice so far, a fourth of them before I started writing letters on computer in 1980, you really begin to appreciate the ability to cut and paste text from prior letters. So here are my tips for anyone

still around willing to listen.

　　Write your own letters on a computer. If you have not yet joined the computer revolution, do it now. Get a computer for no other reason than writing letters. You will never again find yourself explaining to your client why the letter you dictated three days ago has not been mailed yet.

　　Get Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect. You will need good word processing software. The latest versions are Microsoft Word 2000 and Corel WordPerfect 2000. I have both, but I still use Wordperfect 5.1 for DOS for 99% of my work. My fingers know the special codes so well that it's faster for me to write in this older program. I can still convert the file format to any other one using one of the new 2000 programs which can read the old 5.1 files.

　　Get voice recognition software if you cannot type. If you never learned to touch type, there is finally reliable software to do it for you. Voice recognition software allows you to dictate directly to your computer. The software is so good that WordPerfect 2000 is sold in a bundle with one brand. You can also purchase this software with an optional hand-held recorder so that you can dictate the old-fashioned way and then transfer it to your computer to transcribe. The two most-advertised brands of software are Dragon Naturally Speaking and L&H VoiceXpress.

　　Set up a separate directory for each client. If you create a directory (folder) on your computer for every client, you can keep all letters, documents and work for that client in one easy-to-find place, just like your paper file folder. The client's last name can be used as the directory name. Thus, all letters, wills, contracts, spreadsheets, etc., for John Doe can be kept on your computer's directory named DOE.

　　Keep all letters in one computer file. Just as you keep copies of all letters in a paper file folder, you should keep copies of all letters on your computer in the directory for that client. The easiest way to do this is not to start a separate computer file for each letter sent to someone. Instead you just add the new letter to the existing computer file containing other letters to that person. I find that it works best to add new letters at the top of old letters, rather than at the bottom. Then your computer file is like a paper folder since new letters are added at the top where you see them first. This is easy to do on your computer: you just start a new page at the top of the existing letter and write the new letter there.

　　Name letters to clients LETTERCL and name letters to non-clients with the recipient's last name. If you name the file with the recipient's last name, you can easily find the letter later when you want to read it on your computer without having to pull the file. For example, a letter to non-client Mary Smith would be given the computer file name SMITH. The only exception is that I name all letters to my clients LETTERCL rather than the client's last name because their computer directory is already named their last name. I also do this because it saves me time finding the file if the client is a corporation or there are multiple clients.

　　Copy text from prior letters. More than half the letters you write are not first letters to a recipient, but are follow-up letters that either remind the recipient of pending work to be done or continue discussion of a matter previously opened. The other half have at least one thing in common: the letter's opening with the recipient's name and address and the closing with your name. There is no need to retype all of this text in your new letter. Using block and copy (cut and paste) commands you can easily copy the recipient's name and address and usable text from a prior letter into your new letter. You can then modify that text to fit the current message. I even have macros that do the repetitive stuff for me.

　　Print the envelope from the letter. Before we

had a computer, we had a lot of errors in typing envelopes and mailing labels. Then when a client called to tell us the error, we would look at the letter and tell them we sent it to the correct address, only to be told that the envelope had a different address. This can easily be avoided by using the envelope printing features of word processing software, which takes the address right off the letter so that you know the letter and envelope will have the same address.

　　Back up as you write. As wonderful as computers are, they are still powered by electricity, and when it goes off, the words disappear from the screen and if they have not been saved they disappear forever. The first time you lose an hour of work you get a backup device of some type. The second time you lose an hour of work you actually start to use the backup device. My recommendation for backing up is this:

　　Hit the save button frequently while writing the letter.

　　If the letter is long, print hard copies of the letter frequently while writing it.

　　Copy all your work to a backup device at the end of every day.

　　Conclusion

　　Letters serve many purposes: advising clients, seeking complian

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