Illinois Appellate Lawyer Blog
Most good-writing books suffer from a sleep-inducing sameness. Often smug and condescending, they tell you what to do and what not to do ― be concise; avoid verbosity, especially the dreaded legalese; use active verbs; don’t write passive sentences, unless of course you’re smart enough to know when to break the rule; use strong lead sentences to start paragraphs; use strong summary sentences to end paragraphs; and so on.
Author Ross Guberman breaks the die. His entertaining and informative Point Made: How to Write Like the Nation’s Top Advocates takes a smart approach to writing persuasive legal briefs. Rather than lecturing the reader about what to do, Point Made shows you how the headline lawyers do it.
Guberman breaks down the brief into basic elements — theme, facts, argument — and describes how to deliver them. He then shows skillful writing techniques with examples from briefs written by all-star lawyers.