(Note: You can access an updated version of this columnĀ here).
A few weeks ago, I posted my first five takeaways from Typography for Lawyers by Matthew Butterick. Here are the final five:
Turn on kerning. Kerning adjusts specific pairs of letters to improve their spacing and fit. Butterick says to turn on kerning, and I agree. By default, Microsoft Word does not activate its kerning feature, so you have to do it manually. Here’s how: Select the Font menu and then the Character Spacing tab (in Word 2010 it’s the Advanced tab). Check the box that says “Kerning for fonts ___ Points and above” and select the number 8 in the point-size box. You are ready to go.
Use curly quotes instead of straight quotes. Though there are exceptions (most notably, foot and inch marks) a brief should never have straight quotes (another vestige of the typewriter). To use curly quotes, you need to use Word’s smart-quote feature (which can be turned on or off), which typically is turned on by default in Word. Over the years, I’ve read many briefs that contained straight quotes with proportional-font text. Get rid of them.
Left- or full-text justification is acceptable; but if you prefer full justification, then turn on hyphenation. Left-justified text has a clean left edge and a ragged right edge. Fully justified text has clean left and right edges. Butterick expresses no preference between left and full justification, calling it a matter of “personal preference.” His personal preference is left justification, which he believes “relaxes the page.” (pp. 136). I despise left-justified text. As a law clerk on the Minnesota Court of Appeals, I wrote my memos with fully justified text and my judge did the same in his opinions. The ragged right edge in left-justified text is terribly distracting. Full justification, in my view, looks cleaner and more inviting to the eye.
The courts are all over the place on the use of left-versus-right justification. The Minnesota Supreme Court uses full justification, and the Minnesota federal district courts are mixed. The judges on the Minnesota Court of Appeals also use both. I doubt using full justification in a brief submitted to a judge who prefers left justification will make a difference in your case, but you still may want to consider the judge’s justification preference (if you have time to figure it out).
If you prefer full justification, Butterick says that it’s “mandatory” to turn on Word’s hyphenation feature. Hyphenation breaks words between lines to create a consistent text block. Word does not automatically turn on hyphenation, so (like kerning) you have to do it yourself. In Word 2007 and 2010, you can turn on hyphenation by selecting the Page Layout menu, the Page Setup panel, and the Hyphenation box. Since I started practicing more than eleven years ago, however, I’ve never read a fully justified brief or judicial opinion that contained hyphenation. And hyphenation may look strange at first, but Butterick is right that it reduces the awkward white space and breaks that can pop up in fully justified text that does not contain hyphenation.
Use line lengths of 45-90 characters. Butterick also recommends policing the lengths of your lines of text. Why? “Shorter lines are more comfortable to read than longer lines,” and will “make a big difference in the legibility and professionalism of your layout.” (pp. 141) He says that lines of text should be no longer than 45-90 characters, which you can monitor by using Word’s Word Count feature. Getting 45-90 characters in your lines of text shouldn’t be a problem, if you follow my last takeaway below.
Use left- and right-page margins of no less than 1.5″. Butterick says that 1″ margins are too small for proportional fonts, which you should always use. He recommends 1.5″ to 2″ left and right margins. In many local rules, courts now permit parties to file briefs with either a specified number of pages or a specified number of words. So increasing your margins generally won’t matter. But I would hesitate to increase your left and right margins beyond 1.5″. Larger margins result in longer briefs (obviously), and longer briefs may be problematic if you are filing a relatively long brief. When a judge gets a brief that is 50-pages long, he may sigh, longing for brevity in argument. No matter how you cut it, 50 pages is a lot to read. If the judge has a choice to read a 50-page brief with 2″ margins (which would otherwise be a 43-page brief with 1.5″ margins) he may decide to read the other side’s brief first or deal with another case. Heed Butterick’s advice about margins, but also keep in mind your intended reader.