Tidy Up Your Writing with Some Spring Cleaning

by Ken Bresler

Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, March 17, 2022
Detroit Legal News, March 22, 2022
Virginia Lawyers Weekly, May 23, 2022

Declutter your writing. Make every word count. Deleting an unnecessary preposition here and there won’t be a huge way to help you meet word limits in your writing, but it will help. And it will make your writing more concise and precise.

“Went off to” almost always means “went to.” The California Supreme Court once wrote in a case about people who met “just before they went off to commit the murders….” People v. Vieira, 5 Cal.Rptr.3d 337, 355 (2005). The court could have been less colloquial and written “just before they went to commit the murders.”

“Write out” often means “write.” The U.S. Supreme Court has written that “there may be several strategic reasons why a defendant willing to speak to the police would still refuse to write out his answers to questions….” Connecticut v. Barrett, 479 U.S. 523, 530 n.4 (1987). It could have written “write his answers.”

“Print out,” as a verb, almost always means “print.” The Seventh Circuit has written about a clerk’s office that “would simply print out electronically filed complaints….” Courthouse News Service v. Brown, 908 F.3d 1063, 1066 (7th Cir. 2018). Just plain “print” would have worked.

“Send out” almost always means “send.” The U.S. Supreme Court has written that the “petitioner requested that the court send out a ‘corrective notice’….” Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. v. Sperling, 493 U.S. 165, 168 (1989). It could have written: “send a corrective notice.”Common Cause Indiana v. Lawson, 937 F.3d 944, 957 (7th Cir. 2019). Just plain “send” would have done it.           

Related to “send out” is “send in.” “Send in” almost always means “send.” The Seventh Circuit has written that “Indiana is able to send in its voter registration data….”    

Related to “send out” is “mail out.” “Mail out” almost always means “mail,” as a verb. A U.S. District Court in Georgia has written about the Georgia Secretary of State having “contracted with a vendor to prepare and mail out absentee ballots to voters.” Black Voters Matter Fund v. Raffensperger, 478 F. Supp.3d 1278, 1305 (N.D. Ga. 2020). The court could have written simply “mail.”

“Fill up” almost always means “fill.” In the U.S. Constitution, the Recess Appointments Clause provides, “The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.” U.S. Const,, art. II, § 2, cl. 3. The Framers could have written “to fill all vacancies.”

“Kill off” is often the same as “kill.” The Ninth Circuit has written that “the patient is given extremely high doses of chemotherapy (HDC) to try to kill off all of the cancer cells, a process that also kills off many of the patient’s healthy cells.” Simkins v. NevadaCare, Inc., 229 F.3d 729, 732 (9th Cir. 2000). The court should have killed the unnecessary preposition and written just: “kill all of the cancer cells.”

“Sell off” is often the same as “sell.” The Sixth Circuit has written about a financial company that bundled a “loan with others as part of a mortgage-backed security and sold it off to investors….” Wallace V. Midwest Financial & Mortgage Services, Inc., 714 F.3d 414, 418 (6th Cir. 2013). Just plain “sold” would have worked.

“Cool down” is often the same as “cool,” as a verb. The Supreme Court of Alabama has written about a person who “could, on his own initiative, cool down a piece of equipment that was too hot to be used.” McGathey v. Brookwood Health Services, Inc., 143 So.3d 95, 102 (2013).

Stay on the lookout for other extraneous prepositions. You’ll start noticing them. I just saw “rinse out” and “rinse off,” which both mean “rinse.”

Write out, print out, send out, send in – these are called phrasal verbs. “A phrasal verb is a type of compound verb made up of a verb (usually one of action or movement) and a prepositional adverb—also known as an adverbial particle,” Richard Nordquist has written online.

Not all prepositions in phrasal verbs are unnecessary, of course. Some are vital. Deleting prepositions that you don’t need will clean up your writing, but it won’t clean your writing.