Masters of the Universe

by Terri Hall

Now and then, in the course of my day job (or, more accurately, that which pays the bills and keeps me in paper and other writing supplies, as it has been known to encroach upon my evenings and weekends and keep me awake nights), I am required to brush up on basics, refresh my own recollection, fine tune the machine and sharpen skills.

And so it came to pass that I reviewed a videotape produced by the National Institute for Trial Advocacy in conjunction with the American Bar Association and Notre Dame Law School, entitled Mastering the Art of the Cross Examination.

What does a tape for lawyers have to do with a newsletter for writers?

The world. The world of words.

Irving Younger, the moderator of the series, says the most powerful tool that separates a masterful cross exam from a ho-hum one is the force and impact of words, the rich beauty of the English language. He does not recommend that anyone dive into a thesaurus -- far from it.

"Questions should be short and the words you use should be plain English words. Avoid lawyer talk. Don't say 'prior' when you mean 'before'. Don't say 'subsequent' when you mean 'after'. If you're talking about a car, call it a car -- not a 'motor vehicle'.

Sounds simple, but it's advice that lawyers, often entranced with the sound of their voices, and writers, often enthralled with their purple prose, tend to forget. Trade "writer" for "lawyer" in the next sentence -- it's much easier than you think.

If you use lawyer (writer) talk you run the risk that someone in the jury box (a reader) may not know what you mean -- and at the same time you're reminding the jury (readers) that you are a lawyer (writer) -- and that is the shortest way to losing a case (reader)".

The great masters of the cross exam, says Mr. Younger, "exhibit a poet's sensitivity to words." While there may be 10 or 12 words in an English dictionary that mean essentially the same thing, the great masters feel, see, sense their small differences.

"To a lawyer, to a poet, they are not the same thing. Words have different connotations," says Mr. Younger. "They have different vibrations coming off them. They have emotional connotations. And a masterful cross examiner, out of a range of possible synonyms, will always select exactly the one that gives off the vibrations, that carries with it the emotional aura that the lawyer (writer) wants to get across to the jury (reader)."

Sometimes lawyers are poets. Some of the best turns of phrase you will ever see anywhere color the decisions of the great Supreme Court justices such as Oliver Wendell Holmes, Felix Frankfurter, Benjamin Cardozo. "Clear and present danger", "marketplace of ideas", "benign neglect", "all deliberate speed" -- you can thank the Supremes for those.

But who does Mr. Younger quote? Not a lawyer. Not a judge. A writer.

Mark Twain once said, "The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug."

The exact word explodes. The almost right word bombs. Or lays there like a dud.

Your choice. Choose well.

Terri Hall is a member of the Hudson Valley Chapter of RWA and writes historical romance. Currently the editor of Hudson Valley's A Word about Romance newsletter, Terri is also a finalist in our own Between the Sheets contest. This article originally appeared in the April 1997 issue of A Word About Romance. GDRWA thanks the Hudson Valley chapter for allowing us to reprint it.

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