Writing short, simple, clear prose isn’t merely good practice. Science tells us it ensures that overwhelmed readers understand your message quickly and easily.
The social science behind cognitive load theory and working memory tells us we should simplify legal concepts, make their connections clear, and use shorter words and sentences if we want readers to understand. This is because we have a limited amount of brain power we can use while we take in and process information before everything falls apart. Colloquially, we call this “brain strain.”
Readers Are Jugglers
Imagine readers as jugglers and concepts as the bowling pins. A beginner can juggle fewer items, and they need to be similar. At the other extreme, a skilled juggler can successfully manage many mismatched items, but it’s stressful and graceless. At some point, the task becomes too difficult, and all of the pins clatter noisily to the ground. Highly influential research from George A. Miller showed that most readers can juggle or remember no more than seven concepts. (This is commonly known as “Miller’s law.”)
Cognitive Load, Working Memory, and Fluency
Let’s define some terms before we go on.
- Cognitive load is the mental effort required to interpret and understand text. In this example, juggling represents the cognitive load.
- Working memory is like the juggler’s hands and attention. It represents the number of pins (concepts) the juggler (reader) can “keep in the air” (understand) all at once.
- Fluency is the ease with which the juggler can keep going. It depends on the similarity or familiarity of the information. Consistent pin size, shape, and weight (clear language) makes it easier to successfully take on more.
Sometimes, there is too much to handle, and the juggler/reader becomes overloaded and gives up. Readers that must hold too many concepts in their heads—or overcome too many challenges—to work through your text will stop trying to understand it.
What Does the Science Say?
Professors Andrew Carter and Laura A. Webb applied working memory and cognitive load theory to legal writing, reading, and learning. They posit that working memory allows us to temporarily store new information and manipulate, use, build on, and connect it to prior knowledge.
Working memory is key to learning, creating long-term memory, and performing complex tasks. But has limited capacity. And the greater the intellectual complexity of the concepts, the more working memory struggles. Because law is inherently complex, we as writers must work harder to make sure we ease the brain strain.
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Plain Language Eases Brain Strain
As we receive information, we try to put it into familiar categories. When we struggle to parse and categorize new information, that causes stress and strain. Help ease the information into your reader’s mind with short sentences, familiar word choices, and obvious structure. This isn’t “dumbing it down”; it’s clarity through simplification.
It might surprise you to learn that this advice is consistent with the legal writing advice we’ve heard for decades. It turns out that the leading legal writing experts and plain language advocates have stumbled upon sound and scientifically supported advice despite most of them approaching writing as an art.
Recent research from MIT shows that even lawyers don’t like legalese: “While lawyers can interpret and recall information from legal documents better than nonlawyers, it’s still easier for them to understand the same documents when translated into ‘plain English.’ Lawyers also rated plain English contracts as higher-quality overall, more likely to be signed by a client, and equally enforceable as those written in ‘legalese.’”
Make Your Legal Argument Easy to Understand
When we ask readers to take on a new legal topic, apply critical reasoning, and reach complex conclusions, we’re asking for peak cognitive performance. To persuade readers, we must move them beyond merely understanding the words to feeling our sense of justice.
There are ways to make documents easier to take in, to compensate for the difficulty of the content. Breaking up paragraphs is one. So is using supporting imagery where possible. The more brainpower a reader must devote to figuring out our sentences, the less they can dedicate to understanding.
Improve Clarity by Chunking
Obvious and visible structure is one of the most effective ways to reduce brain strain for readers. Even if you worked from an outline, you may later discover more effective ways to group concepts. Be open to overhauling your structure for better flow. Organize concepts logically so the connections across sentences and paragraphs are clear.
Professor Carter suggests writers group concepts together in smaller "chunks" by concept and context. Define a category, relate information within the category, and then use the established relationship to represent a complex concept. Each chunk should have obvious, specific significance. And when the chunking is based on simple categories, it eases brain strain and increases understanding.
To employ chunking, you may need to reorganize your entire legal document. And because you may make large-scale organizational changes to your writing, it’s best to work on this level of clarity before moving on to editing.
Revise to Reduce Difficulty
After reorganizing, revising, and chunking, edit to reduce brain strain. Reduce distracting details, delete unnecessary abstract concepts, and simplify complex sentence structures. Rewrite winding sentences and cut multiple dependent clauses. Add headings, subheadings, and other signposts throughout your writing.
Question whether every legal term you’ve used is truly necessary. Is there a clearer way to restate it? Replace unfamiliar words with simple, familiar ones. This lightens the reader’s workload. Easily understood information inspires trust and confidence. Editing to reduce brain strain will be difficult at first, but you will get better with practice.
Unfortunately, most people skip the revising and editing process or leave too little time to do it properly. According to one study, effective writers reserve 35% of their time for revising, editing, and proofreading. If you’re short on time, simplifying words is one of the most effective ways to ease brain strain. WordRake can help you work through this process quickly and confidently.
The Path to More Effective Legal Writing
These are the questions you must ask yourself during your legal drafting process. Are you minimizing and streamlining the items your reader must juggle, or do you regularly toss in odd-shaped surprise items and maybe even make them juggle while unicycling?
When your reader feels more like a circus clown than an information gatherer, the reader experiences brain strain—and blames you. Reduce their brain strain and gain their trust by committing to better editing. WordRake can help. Try it free for 7 days.
Great organization, plain language, and clear and concise writing are antidotes to brain strain and your path to more effective legal writing. Help your readers and you’ll be helping yourself.
About the Author
Ivy B. Grey is the Chief Strategy & Growth Officer for WordRake. Prior to joining the team, she practiced bankruptcy law for ten years. In 2020, Ivy was recognized as an Influential Woman in Legal Tech by ILTA. She has also been recognized as a Fastcase 50 Honoree and included in the Women of Legal Tech list by the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center. Follow Ivy on Twitter @IvyBGrey or connect with her on LinkedIn.
Transform your legal briefs from good to great with a sophisticated style editor.
Your writing is essential to your legal practice. Let WordRake help you create clear, concise writing.
