Identify your favourite e book. What’s your favourite line from that e book? Do you might have one? Are you able to even keep in mind one line, one quote from the e book? Now, title your favourite film. What’s your favourite line from that film? Are you able to choose only one, or are there too many to select from?
If you happen to’re like me, you might have a favourite e book, one you like above all others, one that you just inform folks is a “must-read.” But as a lot as you like that e book, you can not recite one line from the e book. You virtually can. You possibly can visualize the setting and the principle characters in your thoughts. You possibly can think about how they sound and their attitudes. However strive as you may, you can not keep in mind one line of dialogue from the e book.
Then again, reciting your favourite line out of your favourite film is not any drawback. Actually, it’s possible you’ll trot that line out with buddies, household or co-workers. Certainly, it’s possible you’ll repeat it so usually that your co-workers, buddies and households are fed up with it and with you. There’s simply so many occasions folks can hear you say: “Depart the gun. Take the cannoli,” earlier than they wish to deal with you to the identical finish that awaited Paulie in The Godfather.
Why is that this? Why do quotes from motion pictures implant themselves so clearly in our brains whereas the written phrase doesn’t? Is it that motion pictures are higher than books?
Historical past and expertise inform us that’s not so. Certainly, uncommon is the case by which a e book is tailored right into a film and the film model is a greater story. Does it occur? Sure. However that’s the exception not the rule. So why will we keep in mind quotes from motion pictures way more simply than quotes in books?
One clarification could also be supplied by media richness theory, which was developed within the Nineteen Eighties. Face-to-face communications or communication by way of video mixed with audio are richer types of media than the written phrase in that they’re able to talk advanced concepts extra shortly and extra successfully in a shorter time period.
Why is that? There are a selection of causes, however chief amongst them is that the spoken phrase, due to nonverbal cues, in addition to tone and pitch of voice, faucets into emotion way more successfully than phrases on a web page. Thus, whereas human conduct is driven both by logic or reason on the one hand and emotion on the other, there was suggestion that up to 90% to 95% of decision-making is pushed by emotion. And the spoken phrase is more practical at tapping into emotion than the written phrase.
However whether or not conduct is pushed primarily by emotion or whether or not it’s pushed in equal measures by emotion and logic, it’s clear that emotion performs an integral half in our decision-making and conduct. Accordingly, communication meant to foster a call (e.g., authorized briefs) that may faucet into each logic and emotion is presumably a superior type of communication than that which appeals to only logic.
If you happen to don’t imagine this, simply strive it for your self. Learn the French nationwide anthem, La Marseillaise. Then hearken to it being sung by Victor Laszlo and varied expats in Casablanca. That may clear up any doubts.
That’s all properly and good, however how does this relate in any respect to authorized writing? In any case, authorized writing is simply that—writing. It’s simply phrases on a web page, usually full of impassive jargon and quotation. What good does it do to know that the spoken phrase is more practical than the written phrase in speaking if you happen to’re required to current your concepts and arguments by way of a written doc?
Effectively, it means that you may take a look at your written materials by studying it aloud. Doing this can reveal whether or not your writing is evident and whether or not it flows naturally—like spoken language—or whether or not it’s stilted, advanced and overly structured, full of dependent clauses, as authorized writings (and, certainly, this sentence) all too usually are.
Trace: If studying your work out loud leaves you breathless or you end up tiring of your personal voice, that’s an indication that it is best to trim your work right down to dimension.
Studying your work aloud can even allow you to establish typographical, grammatical and syntactical errors. Certainly, anybody who has been practising legislation for a while is aware of the sinking feeling of submitting a short or sending an e mail solely to later discover a typo within the doc regardless of having proofread that doc a number of occasions. Studying the written work aloud, nonetheless, is a superb double-check that can help in recognizing typos and different grammatical errors.
Maybe most significantly, studying your work aloud will allow you to find out whether or not your work has any emotional affect. If it sounds such as you’re studying a grocery listing, there’s wager it can learn simply as bloodlessly to a choose.
Is studying your work out loud a cure-all for issues in your writing? Actually not. Nevertheless it positively will assist. As Yul Brynner stated in The Ten Commandments: “So let it’s written. So let it’s accomplished.”
Alex Barnett is a associate at DiCello Levitt, the place he focuses on advanced, class motion litigation and representing these injured by antitrust violations.
ABAJournal.com is accepting queries for authentic, considerate, nonpromotional articles and commentary by unpaid contributors to run within the Your Voice part. Particulars and submission tips are posted at “Your Submissions, Your Voice.”
This column displays the opinions of the creator and never essentially the views of the ABA Journal—or the American Bar Affiliation.