The Articulate Witness

Every day in the United States, ordinary people are called to testify in court. Most of them have never been involved in a legal proceeding. But they have probably seen witnesses in high-profile trials on television, being harshly cross examined, looking nervous or anxious--perhaps even humiliated. The thought of testifying can be scary. Being subpoenaed can lead to weeks or months of anxiety until the day arrives when they raise their right hand and swear to tell the truth. This book is for them. Whether testifying at a trial, arbitration, or deposition, this book will help witnesses get ready for the experience. Easy-to-follow, illustrated tips prepare them to be a more compelling witness. The book contains answers to common questions, such as: What can I expect when I testify? How can I be a prepared and trustworthy witness? What is the key to calming my nerves? What questions should I ask the lawyer who called me? How do I keep my emotions in check? Can I channel my nervous energy into something positive? and How can I prevent getting flustered while testifying? Distinguished trial advocacy instructors who have been teaching lawyers to be self-assured communicators for 35 years now employ their techniques to help people who find themselves in the witness chair.

Whether you are testifying at a trial, arbitration, or deposition, this book will help you get ready for the experience. Easy-to-follow, illustrated tips prepare you to be a more compelling witness. Find answers to common questions: • What can I expect when I testify? • How can I be a prepared and trustworthy witness? • What is the key to calming my nerves? • What questions should I ask the lawyer who called me? • How do I keep my emotions in check? • Can I channel my nervous energy into something positive? • How can I prevent getting flustered while testifying? Distinguished trial advocacy instructors Brian K. Johnson and Marsha Hunter have been teaching lawyers to be self-assured communicators for 35 years. Now they employ their techniques to help people who find themselves in the witness chair.

An advocate may know what to say but is only effective when he or she knows how to be persuasive. Combining fact with know-how to persuade judges, juries, and arbitrator, the book teaches immediately useful techniques such as how to channel the initial adrenaline buzz, grab and hold the fact finder's attention, gesture while speaking, speaking in phrases, and polishing the persuasive style. Based on 25 years of experience from coaching practitioners, this guide integrates cutting edge discoveries in human factors, gesture studies, linguistics, neuroscience, and sports psychology to give litigators a competitive edge. This brand new edition includes all new illustrations and new information on motions, arbitrations, and appeals.

Unlike other trial advocacy books that teach what to say and do in the courtroom, this reference teaches how to say and do it. Based on 25 years of experience from coaching practitioners, this handbook reveals techniques—incorporating cutting-edge discoveries in linguistics, neuroscience, and sports psychology—to help litigators look, sound, and feel natural and polished in the courtroom. Questions that lawyers face daily, such as What do I do with my hands? Aren’t gestures distracting? How do I remember everything? and I tend to talk so fast—how can I slow down? are among the questions addressed in this handbook.

Samuel Beckett and the Theatre of the Witness explores Beckett's representation of physical pain in his theatre plays in the long aftermath of World War II, emphasising how the issues raised by this staging of pain speak directly to matters lying at the heart of his work: the affective power of the human body; the doubtful capacity of language as a means of communication; the aesthetic and ethical functioning of the theatre medium; and the vexed question of intersubjective empathy. Alongside the wartime and post-war plays of fellow Francophone writers Albert Camus, Eugène Ionesco, Pablo Picasso, and Marguerite Duras, this study resituates Beckett's early plays in a new conceptualising of le théâtre du témoin or a 'theatre of the witness'. These are plays concerned with the epistemological and ethical uncertainties of witnessing another's pain, rather than with the sufferer's own direct experience. They raise troubling questions about our capacity to comprehend and respond to another being's pain. Drawing on an interdisciplinary framework of extant criticism, recorded historical audience response, theatre and affect theory, and medical understandings of bodily pain, Hannah Simpson argues that these plays do not offer any easily negotiable encounter with physical suffering, pushing us to recognise the very 'otherness' of another being's pain, even as it invades our own affective sphere. In place of any comforting transcendence or redemption of endured pain, they offer a starkly sceptical, even pessimistic probing of what it is to witness another's suffering.

"Get your nose out of your notes, look your audience in the eye, and become the confident public speaker you've always wanted to be. Grab and hold your listeners' attention with skills you can depend on every time you speak. The Articulate Attorney: Public Speaking for Lawyers will make you a more self-assured, compelling communicator. Discover answers to these common questions: How do I channel nervous energy into dynamic delivery? What is a reliable way to remember what I want to say? How do I stop saying um and think in silence instead? Why is gesturing so important? What do I do with my hands? How can I make PowerPoint interactive? Based on more than 30 years of experience coaching lawyers, Brian K. Johnson and Marsha Hunter address the distinctive communication skills expected of attorneys. They offer practical, immediately useful solutions that integrate cutting-edge discoveries in human factors, linguistics, neuroscience, gesture studies, and sports psychology. These techniques will transform you into a more confident speaker, whether addressing colleagues in a conference room, counseling clients in a boardroom, or presenting a CLE in a ballroom"--Unedited summary from book cover.

This book is an exposition of the basic themes of the work of Miroslav Volf, the Yale ecumenical theologian who has written much about the ethics of embrace, life worth living and human flourishing, and my personal reflections on these themes. The volume is the first of its kind. So far there has been no attempt to systematize Volf's theology and ethics. However, the book is not just a simple description of Volf's work. It tries to merge into one single theological reflection Volf's two basic paradigms: the ethics of embrace and the concept of life worth living. It also demonstrates a unique approach from the perspective of the personal and spiritual reflections of the author who shares a worldview similar to Miroslav Volf's. The book is strengthened by many references to personal interviews and conversations with Miroslav Volf.