Advanced Legal Writing: Theories & Strategies in Persuasive Writing

With a practical focus on persuasive writing strategy, Michael R. Smith identifies and explores three processes of persuasive writing—logos, pathos, and ethos—and provides a thorough introduction to the elements of rhetorical style.

Using detailed how-to guides and plenty of examples, the author’s distinctive approach to persuasive writing examines:

• technical aspects of rhetorical style: metaphor, literary allusion, figures of speech, and graphic design
• three basic processes of persuasive legal writing strategy:
  • Logos: logic and rational argument
  • Pathos: value-based argument
  • Ethos: establishing credibility
• interdisciplinary contributions to persuasive writing from fields such as cognitive psychology, classical rhetoric, and morality theory
• effective strategies that extend beyond the trial or appellate brief to a broad range of documents and settings

In the Second Edition, the reader will find:

• a new organization that puts a greater emphasis on practice and relatively less on theory for each of the three processes of persuasive writing strategy
• a new six-Part organization:
  • I. Introduction
  • II. Logos Strategies
  • III. Pathos Strategies
  • IV. Ethos Strategies
  • V. Rhetorical Style
  • VI. The Ethics and Morality of Persuasion
• coverage of new developments in cognitive psychology, Pathos persuasion, and the role of metaphor in persuasive legal writing.
• the same manageable length

For a complete examination of the technique and strategy behind persuasive writing, Smith’s text strikes the right balance of depth and scope for upper-level legal writing courses.