MSCD4: Too Much of a Good Thing?

The third edition of A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting is 510 pages long. Today I was surprised to be told that the fourth edition will weigh in at around 700 pages. That represents a lot of new material, particularly when you take into account that I’ve omitted chapter 20 (Drafting Corporate Resolutions).

There’s no padding in the fourth edition. But I also made no effort to keep it lean: if I thought a topic worthwhile, in it went. I’m comfortable with the fourth edition being something of a door stopper: in 2018 I’ll be publishing with the ABA my shorter book, Drafting Clearer Contracts: A Style Guide for Contract Drafting, for those who don’t want a lot of explication.

But if you think it should be shorter, let me know.