Writing, Expressing - Improves Communication

2nd edition cover

Summary: The post is about improving communication and its basic rule with a personal happy incident. 

A conversation inspires parties to it; a talk, the attendees; but a writing,  unknown people.

I live alone in Noida: my wife and son are on university faculties at different places. Sometimes, it causes loneliness and depression. But life does brighten up. It did, when a young lawyer came over for a courtesy call.

The young man had gone to a law school in the last decade;did clerkship for a Supreme Court judge; and had just entered the litigation world. The reason for the visit was an emotional one. 

The young man’s father was a civil servant but his grandfather taught Hindi in a school. When he entered the law school, his grandfather presented him his first law book titled ‘A Lawyer’s World And Childhood Dreams’ – the first one written by me. He told me that he had read it with fascination; kept it on his table; and was inspired by it. His grandfather was no more. The day was his ‘BARSI’, the first death anniversary. The young man wanted my signatures on the book. 

1st Edition cover

He had first edition of my book. It seems that it had gone through many hands; or same hands many times; was marked and well read: it wasn’t in a good condition. I presented him with second edition of the book that has a few more articles, wished him success, and signed it. 

We spent some hours together, talking about - his journey; the books he should read; Indian judgements, pleadings, written submissions and their verbosity. He then mentioned that it must have been a great effort to write the book. This took me down the memory lane, why I started writing and how it helped me in the profession. 

Writing Helps 

There were issues that turned me on and the best way to protest was to write. During emergency, I was impressed by two newspapers ‘The Statesman’ and ‘The Indian Express’: they had refused to cow down. There was a local newspaper ‘Northern India Patrika’ as well. But the publishing media does not like unknown people but is willing to accept ’letters to the Editor’. I started sending letters for publication. Slowly, it graduated to book reviews and then to the articles. There were comments and feed back. 

Newspapers are always short of space. The piece has to be within limits. It is not easy but requires efforts and I started sharpening my writing skills. 

In the process, I learned that language should be understood by common man. Legalese is to be avoided and plain English is to be adopted. The writing should not be to impress but to make oneself accessible to others. In order to achieve it: 

• Long continuous prose should be broken into paragraphs; 
• Paragraphs into short sentences; 
• Surplus words and negatives are to be avoided; 
• First person is better than the third person narrative; and 
• Active rather than passive voice should be used. 

 It is not easy to write succinctly. It requires efforts. I don’t say that I have achieved it but writing and practising has improved my pleadings/ written submissions/ judgements. It also made me logical with better communication skills: an asset to anyone. 

 

In my time, it was difficult to get published as only avenue was newspapers and magazines that were choosy but it is no longer so. Apart from them, one can write for the numerous website available; or start own website/ blog; or write on the social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter etc.); or by comment on the posts of others. 

But be cautious; whereas, earlier writings could be forgotten easily but it is no longer so. Internet is unforgiving: it never forgets. So choose your words carefully. You never know, you may offend someone but hopefully you will impress/ inspire others and in the evening of your life, you may get a pleasant surprise. Thank you, my young friend, for brightening my evening. 

Basic Rule

Nevertheless, there is a rule that you must remember. It is mostly forgotten nowadays because of ease of communication. 

Write in a newspaper; write for a website; write on your blog, share it on the social media but never tag anyone and never, never send your writing by email or message or WhatsApp to anyone unsolicited, unless you are writing about that person or you are close enough to know that they would like to read it.

Unsolicited communications is a spam. Don’t commit this mistake. They not only put you in bad light but cause problems to the recipients as well. 

I get numerous unsolicited communications: some relevant that requires my attention but mostly spam. I don’t ignore them as it may be the one that require my attention and read them. It is time consuming and painful. 

 

My advice is – start writing, start expressing. Write like Denning rather than Krishna Iyer; write like Privy Council judgements rather the Indian judgements; share it on the social media; publish on a website or blog but never send them unsolicited.

This post is part of the series 'LegalTrek'. They are under the following sub-heading: Book review/ Biography, Drama/ Judgements, History, Managing Court & Judiciary, Office Management, Personal, Reminiscence/ Advice, Suggestions/ Opinion. If necessary, the division will further diversified. This one is under the sub-heading Managing Court & Judiciary. 

One can access these posts in this series by clicking  on the label 'LegalTrek' on the right hand side and this sub-heading posts by clicking 'Advice' or 'Reminiscences'.

 

LegalTrek - Reminiscences/ Advice

।। Avoid Legalese - Adopt Plain English।।  Know Your Judge।। Soar Rather than Sulk।। One, Who arrests, Bears The Burden।। Then All Lawyers Are Lunatic।। 

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