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WritingLaw Writer Guidelines


This Is How We Work:

Note: This is for confirmed writers. If you are a new writer still in the evaluation stage, you don’t have access to our Slack. So, everything will be via email. But it would be great if you (a new “maybe” writer) follow all other suggestions, like file names, headings, etc., mentioned here.

Here’s how a law article is presented as an idea and finally published:

Step 1: Topic Name

You, the author, come up with the idea of a law article. From time to time, we may also give you a topic which you’re free to take or skip.

You don’t have to start writing straight away. You have to tell me the topic name via Slack DM to @WritingLaw.

Step 2: Outline

After topic approval, you have to send the outline to WritingLaw via Slack DM. The outline should clearly mention H1, H2, H3, and H4 for all headings.

Step 3: Writing

Once the outline is approved (with or without changes to your original outline), you can start writing.

Please try to finish the article in the next ten days and before the 25th of every month. This way, the editor can see it before the 30th, and thus that post of yours can be included in the monthly payment.

Please do not send your article to the editor without checking it in Grammarly. Login details are already shared with you.

Even in the final article, make sure you have mentioned H1, H2, H3, and H4 for all headings.

Step 4: Editor Suggestions

Please make sure to incorporate all the additions, removal, or corrections the editor has asked you.

Step 5: Final Word File

Once everything is done, please send the final Word file via Slack DM to WritingLaw. It is COMPULSORY to check your writing (once again) in Grammarly before sending it to me.

Step 6: Editing

WritingLaw will recheck it and get it ready for publication.

Step 7: Make the Required Corrections

If there are some corrections, you will be asked to make those.

Once this is done, the article is ready for publication and ready to be paid on the first Saturday after the 30th or 31st of that month.

If corrections are pending, that post will be included in the payment for the next month.

Step 8: Published!

Finally, the post will be published in the coming days.


The Rule for Writing the Headings:

The title (H1) and all other headings (H2, H3, H4) are written in the style that is followed by the New York Times. Here’s how to do that:

  1. Go to https://titlecaseconverter.com/ and select NY Times, Enable Multi-Line Input, and Highlight Changes. Don’t tick any other box.
  2. Paste your heading in the box there and click Convert.
  3. Copy the final converted heading style and use that in your Word file.

Writing headings for WritingLaw

Note: Please don’t use a dash (-) or colon (:) or anything at the end of the headings. Add nothing or add just the question mark (?) where necessary.


Rules for the Word File:

  • No fancy editing in the Word file.
  • Just bold, italics, and bullet lists are fine.
  • At the top of the Word file, please mention at least three more headings for that article. I’ll use the one that’s the best. Like if your article name is Burden of Proof, three possible headings can be: What Is Burden of Proof Under Evidence Act, Burden of Proof Explained, and Burden of Proof as Per Chapter VII of Evidence Act.

How to Name the Word File:

  • The filename of the Word file should be: [Your Name] [Month] Topic Name + Version.
  • Example: [Ankita] [November] What is Burden of Proof 1
  • If you send a new edited Word file, the new Word filename will be: [Ankita] [November] What is Burden of Proof 2

How to Make an Outline:

In the Outline, you have to mention all the headings (H1, H2, H3) you are going to include. Please also include any important points in 4-5 lines if required.

Here’s an example of a good outline.

H1: Legality of Child Marriage Under Hindu Law
H2: Meaning of Child Marriage

H2: Development of Laws on Child Marriage
H2: Legislative Provisions Related to Child Marriage
H3: The Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929
H3: The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955
H3: The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006
H2: Issues of Validity of Child Marriage

H2: Case Laws Related to Child marriage
H3: Name of case 1
H3: Name of case 2
H3: Name of case 3
Conclusion

Understand How Headings Work:

Every post on WritingLaw can have four kinds of headings. They are H1, H2, H3 and H4.

  • H1: Every post will have just one H1. This is the main title of your post.
  • H2, H3 and H4: A post can have multiple H2s, H3s and H4s as needed.

Let us understand these by an example.

Assume you are writing an article about yourself. Your name is Ayushi. So, here is how the headings will be. See carefully.

H1 (Title): About Ayushi
Brief Introduction Text

H2 (Major Heading): Educational Qualifications of Ayushi
Text

H2 (Major Heading): Work by Ayushi
Text

H2 (Major Heading): Places Ayushi Has Visited
One or two lines saying something like: Now we will see all the places Ayushi has visited.

H3 (Minor heading, which is a part of H2): Delhi
Text explaining Ayushi’s Delhi visit.

H3 (Minor heading, which is a part of H2): Chennai
Text explaining Ayushi’s Chennai visit.

H3 (Minor heading, which is a part of H2): Jaipur
Text explaining Ayushi’s Jaipur visit.

H3 (Minor heading, which is a part of H2): Assam
Text explaining Ayushi’s Assam visit. Now, if she visited multiple places there, it would be good to include them in headings. So we will use H4 here.

H4 (Smallest heading, which is a part of H3): Kaziranga National Park
Text

H4: Assam State Zoo and Botanical Garden
Text

H4: Kakochang Waterfalls
Text

H4: Orang National Park
Text

H2 (Another Major Heading): Future Plans of Ayushi
Text

Conclusion:
Conclusion text.

I hope now you know what headings are and how to use them. In short: H1 > H2 > H3 > H4. If you have any confusion, see the above example once again carefully. These are very easy. You will figure them out in no time.


Keywords (if given to you):

Keywords are a set of two or more words that people search for most on Google. If you use them in your article as headings or even in lines, paragraphs, etc., your article has an excellent chance to rank well.

  • In every article, try to use as many keywords as provided. But do not overdo it. Use one keyword only once or twice.
  • If you need to slightly change a keyword, you may, to make it more meaningful.
  • I will provide you with the keywords on Slack and also in Trello. Anytime while writing, you can open any of these (preferably Trello) and see them.

Good Writing Techniques:

1. Feel free to use several headings.

2. The basic heading should always be on the top. For example, the headings with words like “Meaning“, “Definition“, “What is” should be on the top. And then other related headings.

For example: When you meet someone, you tell them your name and introduction first. And then you tell them your hobby or why you are contacting them. Same with posts here on WritingLaw. Explain what the reader is going to read in this article. And after that, carry on with other contents.

3. Make sure not to have any paragraph with more than 4 to 5 lines. If it becomes long, just break it into two paragraphs from anywhere you feel right.


Writing Rules:

In your writing, make sure you follow these rules:

Bare Act Names:

  • Always include “the” before a Bare Act name.
  • The first alphabet of the Bare Act name will be capital.
  • There will be a comma between the Bare Act name and its year.
  • No need to add the Act year every time. Once or twice for each Act in one article is enough. Make sure you add the year the first time this Act’s name comes up in the article.
  • For example: the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and not Indian penal code 1860.
  • After you mention the full Act name in the beginning, you may use its short form. For best writing, scatter them in your article. Like sometimes use Indian Penal Code, sometimes use IPC. And so on.
  • When using short names, use these exactly: IPC, CrPC, CPC, Evidence Act, SOGA and so on.
  • Use a mixture of the Indian Constitution, the Constitution of India, or just the Constitution. Sometimes you may use India’s Constitution.
  • Important: Instead of “said Act”, “mentioned Act”, “the Act”, and such, please mostly try to mention the Act name. Like, instead of section 8 of said Act, write section 8 of IPC (or whatever Act it is).

The Words “section” and “Article”:

  • Never use Sec. or Art. for section and Article. Always use the full word.
  • The word “section”, when in the middle of the sentence, will always have small “s”.
  • The word “Article”, even if in the middle of the sentence, will always have a capital “A”.
  • “O” and “R” in Order and Rule will be capital.
  • For example:
    • This is section 300 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
    • This is Article 14 of the Indian Constitution.
    • This is Order 41, Rule 31 of CPC.

Court Names:

Please do not use the words Honourable, Hon’ble, and such prefixes unnecessarily. Limit them to zero or once per post. These look good when an advocate or someone is addressing a court or judge. In law posts, we do not need to use these.

The word “court” when in the middle of a sentence will always have a small “c”.
For example: The court held him to be the culprit.

The word “court”, when used to address Supreme Court, High Court, Sessions Court, will always have a capital “C”.
For example: In Ramesh vs Suresh, the Supreme Court overruled what the High Court and Sessions Court said.

Must Perform Checks:

Open your writing in Word, Google Docs, Notes, Pages, or wherever you write. Now, Use Control + F (On Windows PC) or Command + F (on Mac) to open the search tool. In the search tool, type the words/phrases that are written below and make sure you have written them correctly:

Article: It should have a capital A (Article) and not small a (article). This only applies when referring to Constitution’s Article and not law article.

section: It should have a small s (section) and not capital S (Section). Of course, when it’s at the beginning of a sentence it will have a capital S.

Supreme Court: S and C will always be capital.

High Court: H and C will always be capital.

Sessions Court: S and C will always be capital.

lower court: l and c will be small.

court: In all other situations, the word court will have a small c.

President: P capital everywhere. But words like presidential and others will have small p.

Governor: G capital everywhere. But any words originating from it will have a small g.

Prime Minister: P and M capital.

Chief Minister: C and M capital.

Council of Ministers: C and M capital.

Houses of Parliament: H and P will be capital.

House: The word House will always have capital H when you’re talking about the House of the Parliament.

Parliament: P capital.

central government: c and g will be small.

state government: s and g will be small.

State: When it refers to the country (India), it will have a capital S. When it refers to an actual state (Gujarat), it will have a small s.

Union: U capital

Collector: C capital

Magistrate: M capital

Constitution: Always capital C. But words like constitutional will have small c.

Fundamental Rights and Fundamental Duties: Will always have capital F, R, and D.

Directive Principles of State Policy: D, P, S, P will be capital.

Commission: When it’s used as the name of some commission, then please use capital starting – like Law Commission. But at other places, use small c.

All proper nouns should start with capital alphabets. (Delhi, India, Ramesh, Justice Chandrachud, etc.)

Things like Constituent Assembly should have a capital C and A.

Hindi and Urdu words will start with capital alphabet: Chowkidar, Talaq, Triple Talaq, Waqf, Tehsildar, etc.

Please Don’t Do These Serious Mistakes in Your Writing:

  • Randomly using abbreviations out of nowhere – If you have to use DPSP then it’s compulsory to write Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP) at the first instance this term comes up in your article. Once you have informed the reader that DPSP is the short form of Directive Principles of State Policy, you can use DPSP elsewhere in the article. In some places in your writing, try to use the full form, too, so that it mixes things up.
  • Don’t write short forms like SC for Supreme Court. Stay with actual names in these cases.
  • Don’t write: Articles 14 and 21. Instead, write Article 14 and Article 21. This makes it easier to put a link over the said Articles. However, if there are many consecutively, then you can use: Articles 14 to 21.
  • Please don’t use our nation, the nation, our Constitution, our judiciary, our Supreme Court etc. Please use India, Indian Constitution, Indian judiciary, and so on.

Other Rules:

1. Your writing should be of high quality. The language must be English. You must write with correct grammar, punctuation, spellings, etc.

2. The law notes and articles should be well explained and easy to read.

3. If you include any facts or figures, you must mention the original link of the other website, book, magazine, etc.

4. Do not use unnecessary capital letters between sentences. Do not use a capital alphabet unnecessarily for words in the middle of the sentence.

5. Never use all capital letters for a heading, case name, or anywhere.
For example: Write “Meaning of Right to Life” and not “MEANING OF RIGHT TO LIFE.

6. Do not start the word after a comma with a capital letter.

7. Case names should be written correctly.

8. Use vs in case names. Do not use vs. or v. or versus.

9. Never use one-word headings. Use proper meaningful headings.
For example: Instead of “Meaning” use “Meaning of Restitution of Conjugal Rights.” This is because no one searches for “meaning”. But people search for “Meaning of Restitution of Conjugal Rights.”

10. Please do not use half sentences. Be formal, simple, full and clear.

11. Do not use :- or . Use colon (:). Or in rare situations, use dash ().

12. Write central government and state government. Do not use Central Government and State Government.

13. Stick to one style only throughout the article. For example: If you write two crores, use it everywhere. Do not use 2 crore or Rs. 2 crores, etc. Just stick with one style.

14. Use We instead of I.
For example: In this law note, we will discuss the meaning of free consent in contract law. Not: In this law note, I will discuss the meaning of free consent in contract law.

15. Do not use our. Use the.
For example: Instead of under our Indian legislation use under the Indian legislation. This ensures a good flow even for a reader from a different country.

16. Learn the difference between Act and act.
(i) An act of murder.
(ii) This is IPC. This Act is big. (We are talking about the Indian Penal Code Act. So, it will have capital A.)

17. Amendment will be written normally. Like, There have been 104 amendments to the Indian Constitution. But when with its exact number (that is, while talking about a particular amendment), the first letters will be capital.
For example: 42nd Amendment Act and not 42nd amendment act.