The first edition appeared in 2004. I wrote it while still a practicing corporate attorney, so in my attempts to master contract language I was necessarily something of a dilettante. That changed in 2006, when I made the study of contract drafting my livelihood. That focus meant that the second edition, which came out in 2008, was a very different book—entirely redesigned, significantly expanded, extensively rewritten.

第一版于2004年出版。我写这本书的时候还是一名执业的公司律师，所以在我努力掌握合同语言的过程中，我必然是一个业余爱好者。在2006年，当我研究合同起草我的生计时，情况发生了变化。这种关注意味着2008年出版的第二版是一本完全不同的书，完全重新设计，显著扩展，广泛重写。