Rhetoric and Visualization In Brief Writing

Michael D. Murray, Valparaiso University Law School,  has published Visual Rhetoric and Storytelling in Five Sections of a Brief. Here is the abstract.

The rhetoric of visualization is critical to client-centered legal practice. Visualization through storytelling connects all subject areas in the law and extends far beyond the law to disciplines as varied as cognitive studies, brain science, and rhetoric and persuasion. Visual rhetoric is a growing topic of discussion and scholarship in the legal writing academy, as scholars and practitioners explore the potential of images as cognitive, communicative, and persuasive devices. Lawyers use stories and visual images and structures as framing devices, organizational schema, and persuasive rhetorical methods to communicate the context and meaning of a client’s situation and to improve the communication, reception, and understanding of legal argument with a given audience. Most legal writing and advocacy study has focused on the facts section for narrativity and storytelling, while visual rhetoric has focused on the argument section. This presentation will examine the use of client-centered narrative reasoning and visual rhetoric in five sections of trial level and appellate legal briefs: questions presented; introduction or summary of the argument; statement of facts or statement of the case; explanation sections of the argument; and application sections of the argument.

Download the paper from SSRN at the link.