Rhetoric Persuasion And Modern Legal Writing

Classical rhetorical techniques can enhance the persuasiveness of Supreme Court opinions by making their language clear, lively, and memorable. This book focuses on three techniques—“invention” (creation of arguments), “arrangement” (organization), and “style” (word choice)—in the work of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Robert Jackson, Hugo Black, William Brennan, and Antonin Scalia, respectively. The justices featured here contributed to the Court’s rhetorical legacy in different ways, but all five rejected the magisterial opinion style of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in favor of a more personal and conversational format. As a result, their opinions have endured, and even modern readers who cannot recall the justices’ names understand and embrace the ideas expressed in their legal writings and apply those ideas to current debates. Practicing lawyers, professors, and students can use this book to study legal writing techniques and make their own writing more persuasive.

This new book is intended for use by writing professors who want to inject more substance into their first-year legal research and writing course, as well as advanced legal writing students and upper-class students taking a seminar on rhetoric. The book is divided into two main sections: The first section examines rhetorical theory and its impact on legal argument from the time of ancient Greece to date. The second section, organized by the canons of classical rhetoric, discusses practical applications of rhetorical theory to the specific task of learning to think and write like a lawyer in the twenty-first century. By fusing theory and practice, a legal writer acquires depth-the ability to analyze an issue effectively using all available resources-as well as breadth-the ability to transfer her talent from one context to another. Each chapter includes questions for consideration by the students as well as samples exercises and suggested answers.

An innovative and riveting look at briefs from a highly respected author that can be used a primary text in an advanced legal writing class or as a secondary text in a basic legal writing course. The chapters can be taken in any order. In the first part of the book, individual chapters cover advanced legal writing topics such as rhetoric, voice, emotion, metaphor, and narrative. The second part of the book introduces famous cases, with the story of each case. Chapter introductions provide interesting insights, such as historical context, the story of the case and of the litigation of it, information about the lawyers who wrote the briefs on both sides, what the courts decided, and, where relevant, about what has happened since. Compelling content makes it easy to engage students while photos throughout enliven the text. Features: Highly respected author Flexibility can be used as core text in advanced legal writing with other materials secondary text in a basic legal writing course chapters can be taken in any order High-interest, engaging content Each chapter focuses on important legal writing topics rhetoric voice emotion metaphor narrative Features famous case Chapter introductions with compelling insights historical context the story of the case and its litigation information about the lawyers who wrote the briefs on both sides what the courts decided what has happened since Full-text cases and briefs offered on a companion website Photos that enliven the text

Rhetoric is ubiquitous in modern discourse: from arguments delivered in the High Court, to advertisements disseminated in the high street. For the legal and political advocate, persuasion is also a professional technique that must be perfected properly to practise each art. In contrast with the classical era and the middle ages, in which grammar, rhetoric and dialectic were basic features of all education, modern curricula almost entirely neglect any theoretical study of the methods of rhetoric. Rediscovering Rhetoric re-introduces to modern practitioners and students a grasp of the speeches, writings and methodologies of the great classical scholars of rhetoric. Part 1 - Law and Language in the Greco-Roman Tradition provides a contextualised introduction to significant theorists of rhetoric in the classical period, and consists of four chapters written by practising barristers and a current Justice of the Federal Court of Australia. Part 2 - The Practice of Persuasion comprises essays by practitioners distinguished in their pursuit of legal persuasion - one former and two current Justices of the High Court of Australia - illuminating their experiences of argument from the perspective of both bench and bar. Part 3 - The Politics of Persuasion performs a similar function to Part 2, in the related domain of politics. It includes a chapter by Graham Freudenberg, former speechwriter for Gough Whitlam and others. Together the three parts provide a unique inter-disciplinary perspective on the theory and practice of legal and political persuasion. Published in association with the NSW Bar Association.

Your Client’s Story: Persuasive Legal Writing centers on the foundations of advocating for a client, with a focus on ways to persuade the reader to grant the relief each client seeks. That sets it apart from other legal writing textbooks, which mainly organize around parts of an appellate brief. Organized to reflect the client-advocacy process that results in written documents, the text begins with meeting the client, moves to investigating the facts, and then provides guidance on analyzing and choosing the appropriate persuasive strategy. The material is rooted in concepts of narrative theory, brain science, and cognitive psychology. The book is written in an easy-to-read, conversational style to guide students through an explanation that classical rhetoric and modern persuasion theory provide the foundation for memorable legal writing. Coverage includes both the trial and appellate levels. By focusing on the process of persuasion, Your Client’s Story: Persuasive Legal Writing creates strong connections between the first-year objectives and the upper-level skills, externship, and clinic courses. Editable versions of the sample briefs appear in the appendices so that professors can tailor them to individual needs. New to the Second Edition: A new chapter on logical fallacies, unique among legal coursebooks, categorizing and describing 16 common logical fallacies, providing examples and guidance on how to spot and avoid them A new chapter on reasoning with facts (inferential reasoning), covering fact synthesis, weight of facts, and drawing negative inferences from the absence of critical facts Expanded coverage of how to write a powerful conclusion to your brief Professors and students will benefit from: This book focuses on the question, “How can the lawyer persuade the audience through legal writing?” rather than “What does a brief look like?” This book puts the facts first. It is the only text on the market to devote several chapters to factual research, fact synthesis, and reasoning with facts. The client-centered focus makes this textbook unique in the legal writing market. By learning how to effectively tell “Your Client’s Story,” this book helps students stay grounded in client-based advocacy. The book includes more extensive coverage of visual design than competing books, including a discussion of visualized legal reasoning. The authors have individually and collective written germinal legal scholarship about legal narrative and legal document design. The authors are all prior presidents of the Legal Writing Institute. One of them is the co-editor-in-chief of the legal journal devoted to publishing persuasive-writing articles for practicing attorneys.

With a practical focus on persuasive writing strategy, Michael R. Smith identifies and explores three processes of persuasive writing—logos, pathos, and ethos—and provides a thorough introduction To The elements of rhetorical style. Using detailed how-to guides and plenty of examples, The author’s distinctive approach to persuasive writing examines: technical aspects of rhetorical style: metaphor, literary allusion, figures of speech, and graphic design three basic processes of persuasive legal writing strategy: Logos: logic and rational argument Pathos: value-based argument Ethos: establishing credibility interdisciplinary contributions to persuasive writing from fields such as cognitive psychology, classical rhetoric, and morality theory effective strategies that extend beyond the trial or appellate brief to a broad range of documents and settings in the Second Edition, The reader will find: a new organization that puts a greater emphasis on practice and relatively less on theory for each of the three processes of persuasive writing strategy a new six-Part organization: I. Introduction II. Logos Strategies III. Pathos Strategies IV. Ethos Strategies V. Rhetorical Style VI. The Ethics and Morality of Persuasion coverage of new developments in cognitive psychology, Pathos persuasion, And The role of metaphor in persuasive legal writing. the same manageable length For a complete examination of the technique and strategy behind persuasive writing, Smith’s text strikes the right balance of depth and scope for upper-level legal writing courses.

Lawyers, law students and their teachers all too frequently overlook the most comprehensive, adaptable and practical analysis of legal discourse ever devised: the classical art of rhetoric. Classical analysis of legal reasoning, methods and strategy is the foundation and source for most modern theories on the topic. Beginning with Aristotle's Rhetoric and culminating with Cicero's De Oratore and Quintilian's Institutio Oratoria, Greek and Roman rhetoricians created a clear, experience-based theoretical framework for analyzing legal discourse. This book is the first to systematically examine the connections between classical rhetoric and modern legal discourse. It traces the history of legal rhetoric from the classical period to the present day and shows how modern theorists have unknowingly benefited from the classical works. It also applies classical rhetorical principles to modern appellate briefs and judicial opinions to demonstrate how a greater familiarity with the classical sources can deepen our understanding of legal reasoning.

"Now in its Fourth Edition, Persuasive Legal Writing offers complete instruction, exercises, and examples to teach students how to frame and assert arguments. Starting with an introduction to classical rhetorical devices and the psychology of persuasion, authors Sirico and Schultz unpack every aspect of persuasive writing - from structuring sentences and paragraphs to writing style, tone, storytelling, audience analysis, the ethics of argument, and citation. It's all here, in one remarkably concise volume. Persuasive Legal Writing features: Consistent emphasis on key elements of persuasive writing 1. writing simply and clearly 2. arguing ethically 3. writing for your audience; Structuring your writing to focus attention on the argument; How to achieve an appropriately assertive tone; When and how to cite authorities to support your argument; How to make equity and policy arguments; A helpful summary of common pitfalls in persuasive writing; Generous use of examples throughout; Integrated writing exercises for developing advocacy skills; A capstone exercise at the end of the book; An attractive new cover and interior design; Enhanced and streamlined examples that are even more student friendly; Examples from briefs and court opinions; A chapter on narrative and storytelling in persuasive writing. New to the Fourth Edition: Two new chapters devoted to applying storytelling principles to legal argument and using visuals in support of persuasive arguments; Recent empirical studies with analyses to elucidate important concepts; Additional examples of use of language and writing style in persuasive rhetoric"--Unedited summary from book cover.