Every piece of writing, from an appellate brief to a client memorandum, must meet four essential demands: deciding what to write about, selecting materials for discussion, determining the form of presentation, and envisioning the effect on the audience. These questions—what, with what, how, and why—form the matrix of all good writing. For lawyers, they aren’t abstract ideals but practical tools. Legal writing succeeds or fails depending on how deliberately a writer answers them.
In law, the first two questions—what to write about and what materials to use—present the greatest opportunities and the greatest challenges. The subject is often assigned by a client’s problem or a pending motion, but how to frame it is not. Choosing the questions to answer and the claims to advance demands interpretive judgment. A well-chosen issue defines the argument’s scope; poor framing wastes effort. Likewise, the supporting materials—the cases, statutes, facts, or policy arguments—must be chosen with both precision and imagination. A mismatch between the topic and the supporting authorities will always weaken the paper, no matter how elegant the prose or ornate the citations.
The third question—what form to use—is partly dictated by context. Court rules or professional conventions usually prescribe a structure, as with briefs or motions. Yet even within rigid forms, strong writers exercise stylistic freedom. The decision to avoid needless legalese, to favor lively wordings, or to order arguments for maximum clarity all belong here. The rules define the container, but the writer defines the style and tone within those boundaries.
Finally, every act of legal writing aims at an effect—almost always persuasion. The lawyer must decide what response readers should have: belief, conviction, or assent. Every other decision—in content, evidence, form, and tone—must serve that goal. A writer who keeps the four demands in balance, who knows what to argue, what to rely on, how to present it, and why it matters, will write not only clearly but compellingly. Mastering that discipline is the surest path to success.