What the Trump indictment can teach us about good writing

[usonian]

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2023/06/13/trump-documents-indictment-florida-jane-rosenzweig
June 13, 2023
Jane Rosenzweig
Jane Rosenzweig is the director of the Harvard College Writing Center

Since the Department of Justice unsealed the indictment of former president Donald Trump last week, the pundits have been in overdrive assessing the contents -– the details, the charges, the chances of a conviction, and the implications for the 2024 election. As a writing instructor, I can’t help but think about the document itself, which is a surprisingly compelling read, especially for legal writing, a genre that’s primarily focused on laying out the facts.

While the facts detailed in the indictment would be shocking no matter how they were presented, special counsel Jack Smith and his team made some intentional writing choices that make this document — and therefore the case against Trump — especially effective.

I tell my students that when they admire a piece of writing, they should try to figure out what’s working so they can use those strategies in their own work. So what can we learn about good writing from the indictment? ...

The outcome of this case will, of course, depend on more than the strength of the writing in the indictment. But good writing matters, especially when you have a story to tell or an argument to make. In this case, the banal cadence of a standard legal document would not have been nearly as interesting or persuasive. In the age of ChatGPT, when formulaic writing will be ever easier to generate, those voices who can capture our attention and shape our understanding of the world will matter more than ever.

The article is short, to the point, and has a couple of specific examples.
Good writing!