Sunday, March 09, 2008

I must be crazy

I'm not sure which is worse: Going crazy and knowing it, or doing the whole thing as an unabashed ignoramus.

Either way, I'm off to law school in the fall. The University of Oklahoma School of Law, to be precise. (I feel that I need to say cliches like thatin order to fit in with all the courtroom drama I see unfold on television.)

In all honesty, I'm really excited. The studying that might feel like taking a tack hammer to the skull isn't so exciting--but in a way, it sort of is.

So in order to perfect my legalese, I need to get out of my write-as-much-as-possible-with-as-few-words-as-possible way of going about things. Apparently in legal writing, if you can write something in 789 words that the typical person writes in a little under 9.5, you're on your way.

It should be a good time. And if anyone has any ideas as to which medication I should be on, please feel free to let me know.

**By the way, the photo was taken from a website called wackyboxes2005.com.

8 comments:

Brandon said...

Please tell me you're kidding... they don't really value bad communication, right?

Allison Harris said...

Vicodin is pretty good. So is oxycotton. In fact, both together work pretty well (for knee surgery at least).

Maybe you should just go with Flinstones vitamins.

Courtney said...

Way to credit your photo source John! Though I am disappointed that you're going to trade in those 9.5 words for several hundred phrases of gobbledy-gook. I thought we writers had to stick together!

Oh well. Congrats!

-courtney

Katie said...

I am very excited for you. Remembering back to the days when we had to cut down your long-winded columns and editorials so they would fit on one page...I think you'll do okay with trading in the 9.5 words for the hundreds... :)

Anonymous said...

John:

Good post. And keep your writing-more-with-less techniques in tune. They'll be very useful AFTER law school.

You might appreciate this blog about attorneys as authors and law firms as publishers:

http://misterthorne.org/set_in_style/

Liz said...

Medication is for losers. Suck it up and study, Gagnon.

Amy said...

This post is waaaay too long -- you need to start practicing in your blog posts. Just put a note that says "really long post" and I'll avoid it like the plague. :) Also, I love that there is a knife on the box, instead of an ice cream scoop. So appropriate.

James Best said...

Congrats on the lawyering, friend. I hope it goes well for you. Unfortunately, you've now made yourself into the "List of Friends Who Have Useful Skills That I Will Lean on Them To Employ For Me on a Later Date".

For example: I have an accountant friend for tax purposes, I have a computer geek friend for breakdowns, I have an editor friend for manuscripts, and now I have you, my lawyer friend, for legalese .

Welcome to my club of usury. Or usery.

But really, congrats.