Brevity in Lincoln’s Writing

Professor Julie Oseid examines Abraham Lincoln’s writing in her article The Power of Brevity:  Adopt Abraham Lincoln’s Habits, 6 J. ALWD 28 (2009).  Based on her review of Lincoln’s writing, Oseid recommends that lawyers use his “habits of writing early, visualizing audience, and ruthlessly editing.”  (page 29)

Oseid starts with the premise that “[t]he goal of brevity should be clarity.” (29)  Lincoln, she says, described the opposite of brevity when he said that another lawyer could “’compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met.’”  (29)  Brevity does not sacrifice precision, however, and a writer must be aware of concepts like the rhythm and sound in phrases like “’[f]our score and seven years ago.’”  (30)

Brevity has persuasive power.  (30)  Oseid quotes Justice Antonin Scalia and Bryan A. Garner on brevity in Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges:  “’Judges often associate the brevity of the brief with the quality of the lawyer.  Many judges we’ve spoken with say that good lawyers often come in far below the page limits—and that bad lawyers almost never do.’”  (30)

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Congratulations to the 2011 Jenkins Competition Participants

Congratulations to the participants in the 2011 Jenkins Honors Moot Court Competition:

  • Grant Anderson
  • Susan Barranco
  • Jaclyn Bielefeld
  • Stephane Fabus
  • Matthew Hall
  • Kyle Mayo
  • Alexandria McCool
  • Garrett Nix
  • Robert Olmr
  • Dana Pierson
  • Anthony Prekop
  • Meghan Refinski
  • Samantha Rueden
  • Sabrina Stephenson
  • David Streese
  • Nicholas Zepnick

The Jenkins Honors Moot Court Competition is a merit based invitation-only appellate moot court competition for Marquette law students.  Students will begin writing their appellate briefs in January with the rounds of oral argument commencing later this spring.

Students are fortunate to have the opportunity to argue before distinguished members of the bench and bar from Wisconsin and beyond.  The final round judges of the 2010 competition were the Honorable Jeffrey S. Sutton, the Honorable Diane S. Sykes, and the Honorable Charles N. Clevert.

The competition is named after James G. Jenkins, the first Marquette Law School dean.  More can be read about Jenkins in this post by Professor Gordon Hylton.

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The Mayflower Compact

About a year before the first Thanksgiving, in early November 1620, the Pilgrims landed in Cape Cod.  In Mayflower Nathaniel Philbrick recounts how before landing in Provincetown Harbor, the Pilgrims drafted and signed the Mayflower Compact.  The Mayflower Compact states in full:

 Having undertaken, for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith and honor of our King and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do these present solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony, until which we promise all due submission and obedience.

 The Pilgrims fashioned this secular covenant to have an agreement for governance when they disembarked from the Mayflower. 

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