Writing Matters
| Publication year | 2020 |
| Pages | 0066 |
| Citation | Vol. 25 No. 6 Pg. 0066 |
Getting Good at the New Norm: Writing Briefs and Motions for Screen Readers
Electronic documents and screen reading will certainly be a part of the new norm on a greater scale than before. Learn about possible concerns, strategies and additional resources on how to get good at what appears to be the new norm.
BY DAVID HRICIK AND KAREN J. SNEDDON
In a few past installments of "Writing Matters," we discussed the studies that have shown that readers receive information differently, and typically less efficiently, when reading from a screen than from text on a physical page of pa-per.[1] Given that the courts have moved to eFiling, and some have recently banned any paper submissions due to the COVID-19 pandemic,[2] this installment of "Writing Matters" summarizes the concerns that may arise when preparing a brief or motion that will likely be read exclusively by the judge on a screen. This installment also describes some strategies to address those concerns and provides additional resources on how to get good at what appears to be the new norm.
The Known Differences Between Paper- and Screenbased Communications
Several studies have analyzed the differences between paper- and screen-passed communications. While the jury is to some extent still out, the consensus so far is something that litigators should consider: "Screen readers consistently overestimated their reading comprehension. Paper readers were more accurate in their self-judgments."[3] That difference is critical because the reader may not recognize that more effort is needed than with reading paper: "people who overestimate their abilities are likely to put in less effort. The less effort a person puts into a reading passage, the less they are likely to comprehend. That's because reading comprehension, like all learning, isn't easy and requires work."[4]
Other studies show that we look at the text differently based upon the medium of communication. Specifically, one study showed that for printed text, we read across each line then down the page. For screen-based text, the readers' eyes follow an "F" pattern, and the reader reads "a paragraph's topic sentence fully (and horizontally) with diminishing returns farther down the paragraph."[5] That same study showed screen readers—despite the fact that they have less reading comprehension—take less time to read.[6]
Finally, the tactile experience...
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