LW Tip #5 Show Don't Tell

I recall learning this lesson in high school English classes. It's not always easy to figure out how to apply lessons like these to legal writing, but this applies with particular force to the statement of fact portion. It is better to show your readers what happened and let them draw their own conclusions rather than telling conclusions. For instance Steven Stark, sites an appellate brief trying to establish the insanity of a client that begins "On the morning of the burglaries in question, my client tried to eat a live cat for breakfast." This is preferable to thee alternative starting with expert opinions stating that the client is insane. The illustrative description allows the readers to see and understand the story better than the conclusions of the experts could.