STORYTELLING STORYTELLING If we are to be successful

STORYTELLING

STORYTELLING • “If we are to be successful in presenting our case we must not only discover its story; we must become good storytellers as well. Every trial, every … argument for justice is a story – Gerry Spence, Win Your Case • Why is storytelling important?

STORYTELLING • To become good storytellers we must: • • • Understand Story Elements Be Believable and Likable Know How to Tell a Story

STORYTELLING – ELEMENTS TO A STORY • Five Basic Elements to a Story • • • Characters Setting Plot Conflict Resolution

STORYTELLING – ELEMENTS TO A STORY • Five Basic Elements to a Story • Characters – who the story is about • • Descriptions that allow listener to visualize each person or make them come alive Setting – location of the action • Descriptions of the environment or surroundings that allow listener to picture the scene

STORYTELLING – ELEMENTS TO A STORY • Five Basic Elements to a Story • Plot – the story. • A beginning, middle and end with necessary descriptions and suspense • Conflict – the issue on which the plot is centered • Resolution – the way the action is resolved

STORYTELLING - STRUCTURE • Story structure – Freytag’s Pyramid • Gustav Freytag was a 19 th Century German Novelist who saw common patterns in the plots of stories and novels and developed a diagram to analyze them using a pyramid.

STORYTELLING - STRUCTURE

STORYTELLING - STRUCTURE • Story structure – Freytag’s Pyramid • Exposition – the setting of the scene which introduces the characters and setting; providing description and background. • Inciting Incident – The event that usually signals the beginning of the main conflict. This is often called the complication. It is what happens to begin the action. • • Rising Action – The story builds and gets more exciting. Climax – The moment of greatest tension in a story – often the most exciting event; the event that the rising action builds up to and that the falling action follows.

STORYTELLING - STRUCTURE • Story structure – Freytag’s Pyramid • Falling Action – Events happen because of the climax and let us know that the story will soon end. • Resolution – the character(s) solve the main problem/conflict or it is solved for the character. • Dénouement – the ending in which any remaining secrets, questions or mysteries which remain after the resolution are solved; often very closely tied to the resolution. • STUDY: Super Bowl Ads closest to the pyramid were most effective.

STORYTELLING – BELIEVABLE AND LIKABLE • Believable • In trial, the story must be based on the facts that will be or have been proven

STORYTELLING – BELIEVABLE AND LIKABLE • Burt Jones was in the living room. There were three couches in that room, each about 10 feet long. The couches were set up in a “U” shape with one against the wall and the other two on either end of the couch, jutting out from the wall, forming the “U”. Burt was on the couch in the middle … and Burt had a broken leg. From where he sat … with a broken leg … Burt had only one way out – straight ahead. But Ralph Smith was straight ahead … blocking Burt’s way out … and Ralph was holding a knife. • Burt pulls out a gun … he pleads with Ralph to let him go … Ralph lunges … Burt fires. • Facts to make story believable?

STORYTELLING – BELIEVABLE AND LIKABLE • Likable • Why is it important? • • Why did you make us hate you so much … How can we be likable?

STORYTELLING – TELLING THE STORY • Emotion • • • Humans are emotional creatures Use of emotions engage jurors in our story Must find the dominant emotion of the case Emotion of each witness Emotion enhances our believability

STORYTELLING – TELLING THE STORY • Descriptive Language • Language which uses images that appeal to the listener’s senses, helping the listener to imagine how the subject looks, sounds, smells, feels. • • Language which creates a mood. • Precise language with specific adjectives, nouns and strong action verbs. Includes vivid sensory details that paint a picture and paints pictures of the feelings the person, place or thing invokes.

STORYTELLING – TELLING THE STORY • Present Tense • • Expresses an action that is currently going on or a state that currently exists. • Generally, it is used to describe actions that are factual or habitual -- things that occur in the present but that are not necessarily happening right now. The present tense uses the verb's base form (write, work), or, for third-person singular subjects, the base form plus an -s ending (he writes, she works). The present tense indicates that an action is present, now, relative to the speaker.

STORYTELLING – TELLING THE STORY • Active Voice • With active voice, the subject performs the action denoted by the verb. • Because the subject does or “acts upon” the verb in such sentences, the sentences are said to be in the active voice.

STORYTELLING – TELLING THE STORY • Active Voice – Examples • The man must have eaten the hamburger. • • Man is the subject; eat is the verb – the subject is doing the verb The woman mailed the letter. • Woman is the subject; mail is the verb – the subject is doing the verb

STORYTELLING – TELLING THE STORY • Active Voice • Contrast to passive voice which is the reverse • • Subject is being acted upon by the verb Examples: • • Five hamburgers must have been eaten by the man The letter was mailed by the woman

STORYTELLING –TELLING THE STORY • Imagery • • Imagery draws on the five senses: taste, touch, sight, smell, sound. Imagery can also pertain to details about movement, emotions or sensations of a person such as fear.

STORYTELLING – TELLING THE STORY • Memorable Language – Communication • Parallelism • The use of components in a sentence that are grammatically the same or similar in their construction, sound, meaning or meter. • Adds symmetry, effectiveness and balance.

STORYTELLING – TELLING THE STORY • Memorable Language – Communication • Parallelism – Examples • • Like father, like son The escaped criminal was wanted dead or alive Easy come, easy go Whether in class, at work, or at home, Jane was always busy

STORYTELLING – TELLING THE STORY • Memorable Language – Communication • Antithesis • Introducing two opposites for contrasting effect; stating a proposition that reverses or contrasts with a previous proposition. • Must always contain double meanings due to the reproduction of two ideas within one statement.

STORYTELLING – TELLING THE STORY • Memorable Language – Communication • Antithesis – Examples: • • We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools – Dr. King • Whether we bring our enemies to justice or justice to our enemies, we will prevail – President Bush Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country – President Kennedy.

STORYTELLING – TELLING THE STORY • Memorable Language – Communication • Contrast • • A rhetorical device through which differences between two subjects, places, persons, things or ideas are identified. Examples: • While Gary was having dinner with his girlfriend, someone was breaking into the store. • While Bill was marking the wall to hang his Elvis, Misty was threatening to say he beat her.

STORYTELLING – TELLING THE STORY • Memorable Language – Communication • Other communication devices • • • Repetition Rule of 3’s Alliterations

STORYTELLING – TELLING THE STORY • Precise Language • • • Short, concise words Short sentences – not writing but speaking No unnecessary words

STORYTELLING – TELLING THE STORY • Physicality • Physicality in the courtroom becomes an expression of your story … your thoughts … the emotion of your story… even of you • • • Use your body, facial expressions, and hands to tell your story Connect with the jury through eye contact and movement Move with a purpose

STORYTELLING – TELLING THE STORY • Delivery • Tone • • • Match the emotion Match the action Pace • Convey the action

STORYTELLING – TELLING THE STORY • Delivery • Watch, listen to and read speeches by great orators • • • Dr. King – Speech at March on Washington FDR – Speech following Pearl Harbor JFK – Inaugural Address

STORYTELLING – OPENING STATEMENT • Opening Statements – General • Opening statement provides the jury with the context through which they will view all the evidence • • • Gets the jury leaning your way Mind control Begin with Case Analysis • Determine your legal and factual theories

STORYTELLING – OPENING STATEMENT • Elements of an Opening Statement • Theme – the hook which spins the opening in a way that the jury is receptive to it. Start and end with your theme • • • Story Foreshadowing the Law – that the jury will need to rely on later in trial Demand – what you want and what the law and facts demand

STORYTELLING – OPENING STATEMENT • The Story • • Based on the facts The meat of the opening Consider elements of storytelling discussed previously Use language discussed

STORYTELLING – OPENING STATEMENT • The Story – Only use facts relevant to your story. Consider these questions: • • Are these facts that will help personalize your client? • • Are these facts that will allow me to address a weakness in my case? Are these facts that will provide depth to a necessary character? Are these facts that will set the scene for what occurred? Are these facts that will help the jury in understanding the legal and factual issues before them? Are these facts that will be remembered by the jury later in the trial?

STORYTELLING – OPENING STATEMENT • The Story • The Moral Theme • • • We must let the jury know why they should decide the facts in our favor. The moral theme is that which answers that question Exhibits