Paragraph numbering: Difference between revisions

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-{{a|plainenglish|}}Maybe a finance contact bias, but I favour numbering absolutely everything, and using as many numbering levels as are implied/needed to reveal the logical structure of the document.
+{{a|plainenglish|}}if you take your legal contracts seriously as a piece of code — not every lawyer does, and for some contracts there are reasons not to<ref>If it is a persuasive, [[commitment-signalling]] exercise like an [[NDA]] — no-one expects to actually enforce the literal terms of an NDA — rather than a careful prescription of precise rights and liabilities and clear economic options, as you might find in a financing or derivative contract</ref> —then treat it like code, and number and nest every new proposition or subroutine. Use as many numbering levels as are needed to reveal the logical structure of the document, while bearing in mind that too many levels reveal prolixity and convolution in your drafting. Make sure your [[semantic structure]] is tight.
-Numbers in a margin don't impede reading comprehension, so there is no harm in “overusing” numbering in a technical document. There is harm in underusing, however.
+There's a fashion for avoiding numbers because they seem intimidating, but push and nonsense to that. This is a piece of technical writing, not literature, and numbers in a margin don't impede reading comprehension, so there is no harm in “overusing” numbering in a technical document. There is harm in underusing, however.
-For non-technical literature there is maybe less need — but Nietzsche numbered his paragraphs!
+Besides, [[Nietzsche]] numbered his paragraphs!
-Numbering levels— each indented to be nested inside the level above — instantly reveal the exoskeleton of the agreement.
+===Nested statements===
+Legal drafting is a form is code. It should have a nested structure, as does computer code. Numbering levels— each indented to be nested inside the level above — instantly reveal the exoskeleton of the agreement.
 Sub-levels break up the inevitably contorted syntax of commercial drafting, making the semantic content much, much easier to parse and understand.