 | Garner's Modern American Usage by Bryan A. Garner
Buy used from: $16.51 Not about legal writing specifically, this offers guidance on all aspects of English usage. Some short entries straighten out confusing words (I stumble over "discrete" and "discreet") or flag cliches ("duly authorized"). Longer entries cover topics such as phrasal adjectives (when do you hyphenate) and punctuation. Fun to browse.
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 | Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges by Antonin Scalia
Buy new: $29.95 / Used from: $20.50 Bryan Garner has made a specialty of helping lawyers write better, through books, articles, and CLEs. (He is also the editor of the last two editions of Black's Law Dictionary.) Among other things, he's been interviewing judges about legal writing (see video clips at http://www.lawprose.org/videos.php). His interview with Justice Scalia led to this joint book project.
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 | The Oxford Dictionary of American Legal Quotations by Fred R. Shapiro
Buy new: $42.04 / Used from: $16.89 It's fun to browse this collection of quotations about American law. And it can be handy, too, when you want to fill in that perfect sentence that you remember from Holmes ... or was it Hand?
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 | The Elements of Style Illustrated by William Strunk Jr.
Buy new: $16.47 / Used from: $4.99 Good legal writing is, first, good writing, and Strunk and White is always a good place to start. (When I was admitted to practice in the Eleventh Circuit, the court sent me a copy.) It's small, easy to read, and packed with sound advice.
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 | Briefing and Arguing Federal Appeals by Frederick Bernays Wiener
Buy new: $85.00 / Used from: $102.79 This classic work from 1961 was reprinted in 2001 (with a new introduction by legal writing maven Bryan Garner). Some passages are dated, but much of the advice is sound. And it's fun to read.
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