Sunday, May 17, 2026

"Zen and the Art of Persuasive Writing"

From Judge David D. Weinzweig, Arizona Court of Appeals at his personal Xitter account, (https://x.com/Zenpersuasion) via Thread Reader:

Continues: 

I’m an appellate court judge.

I’ve read thousands of briefs.

Here’s what no one told you about persuasion and how to win. Thread.
Judges check page length before reading a word.

• Long brief? We read faster and with less attention.
• Short brief? We slow down and pay closer attention.

Brevity signals confidence. Most lawyers have it backwards.
Adverbs sometimes destroy the arguments they’re meant to strengthen and protect. I call them badverbs.

1. Intensifier adverbs: Used to pump up weak arguments (“Clearly,” “Obviously,” “Outrageously”).
2. Hedge adverbs: Used to cushion shaky arguments (“Arguably,” “Apparently,” “Fairly strongly”).

Researchers studied U.S. Supreme Court briefs and found something striking: the more intensifiers a brief used, the more often the party lost. Example below.

Appellate judges do it too — but for a different reason. We reach for them in dissents, when the issue is a closer call.
***
For an example of hedge badverbs, we pull from the news.

Sam Bankman-Fried, facing federal fraud charges, wrote 250 pages defending his character. On honesty he wrote:

“As a general matter, I don’t lie. It’s something that I believe fairly strongly in.”

Fairly strongly. One adverb draining the life from another. All credibility gone.

He was trying to sound honest, but his words scream guilty.

Hedge badverbs don’t soften an argument. They kill it.
Kill zombie nouns. They carry tail markings and shackle verbs into noun forms. Examples: -tion, -ance, -ence.

• “Conducted an investigation” → Investigated
• “Made a decision” → Decided
• “Provided a justification” → Justified

Zombie nouns add weight without adding value. Find them. Kill them.
Your reader is not in the room when you write.

She can’t raise her hand, ask a question or stop you mid-sentence to say she’s lost. By the time she reads your brief, you’re gone.

Before you write a single sentence, ask:

“What does she need to know, and when does she need to know it?”

The best briefs answer questions before the reader knows to ask them.......
....MUCH MORE  
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