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About The Book
For those who draft, review, negotiate, or interpret contracts, this second edition of A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting is a resource without equal. This new edition has been entirely redesigned and is much expanded--over 200 pages longer than the first edition. It covers in greater depth many topics addressed in the first edition, and it discusses many additional topics for the first time. Its analysis of the issues is comprehensive, rigorous, and innovative.
Here are some of the topics covered: * information to include--and not include--in the front and back of the contract * gaining greater control of your drafting through an understanding of categories of contract language * using defined terms efficiently * the implications of best efforts, material adverse change, and dozens of other contract words and phrases * the many sources of ambiguity and the clearer alternatives you should use * rules of general writing that apply to contract drafting * optimal layout and typography
For the first time, A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting includes an appendix with three versions of a contract--the "before" version, the "before" version extensively annotated to show its shortcomings, and the "after" version, redrafted in accordance with the recommendations contained in the manual.
The focus of Adams's book remains not what provisions to include in a given contract, but how to express those provisions in prose that is free of the problems that often afflict contract language. With an unmatched level of practical detail, Adams highlights common sources of inefficiency, confusion, and dispute and recommends clearer and more efficient alternatives. With its numbered paragraphs, this manual is designed for easy reference, and it illustrates its analysis with copious examples.
Praise for A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting, 2nd Ed
A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting is an invaluable resource for the transactional attorney. The discussion of ambiguity is particularly useful, and the chapter on materiality and "material adverse change" provisions offers essential guidance for these uncertain economic times. Read the book to gain an understanding of its principles, then keep it handy when drafting or reviewing contracts.
Steven H. Sholk, Esq., Director, Gibbons P.C.
Anyone tempted to believe the old stereotype of lawyers always writing mumbo-jumbo full of archaic jargon and tangled syntax should take a look at the second edition of A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting. Kenneth Adams is one lawyer who writes with clarity and linguistic insight. He has made a really serious study of how normal Standard English can be used to make contract language clear and unambiguous. His thorough understanding of grammar--in modern terms, stripped of the bugaboos--shines out from every page.
Professor Geoffrey K. Pullum Head of Linguistics & English Language, University of Edinburgh Co-author of The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language
