[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-1-en-105":3,"doc-seo-200514-105":53,"doc-detail-200514-en":127},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,14,19,24,29,34,39,44,49],{"id":8,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":11,"show_sort_weight":12,"slug":13},11,1,"Template","Presentations",90,"presentations",{"id":15,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":16,"show_sort_weight":17,"slug":18},12,"Resumes",80,"resumes",{"id":20,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":21,"show_sort_weight":22,"slug":23},14,"Invoices",70,"invoices",{"id":25,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":26,"show_sort_weight":27,"slug":28},15,"Posters",60,"posters",{"id":30,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":31,"show_sort_weight":32,"slug":33},16,"Social Media",50,"social-media",{"id":35,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":36,"show_sort_weight":37,"slug":38},17,"Forms",40,"forms",{"id":40,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":41,"show_sort_weight":42,"slug":43},18,"Letters",30,"letters",{"id":45,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":46,"show_sort_weight":47,"slug":48},21,"Paper Templates",5,"papers-templates",{"id":50,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":51,"show_sort_weight":4,"slug":52},158,"General","general-158",{"code":4,"msg":54,"data":55},"ok",{"site_id":56,"language":57,"slug":58,"title":59,"keywords":60,"description":61,"schema_data":62,"social_meta":120,"head_meta":122,"extra_data":124,"updated_unix":126},105,"en","writing-like-a-photographer-thinks-using-ansel-adamss-composition-principles-to-write-more-effective-persuasive-introductions-and-conclusions","Writing Like a Photographer Thinks - Using Ansel Adams’s Composition Principles to Write More Effective Persuasive Introductions and Conclusions","","Explores how twentieth-century landscape photographer Ansel Adams’s composition principles can strengthen persuasive legal writing. Argues introductions should communicate where the writer stands on the issue, while conclusions should convey how the writer feels about the issue, rather than relying on conventional roadmap intros and summary conclusions. Situates Adams as a major creative figure and explains a craft philosophy centered on composing compelling images. Provides rhetorical guidance for drafting clearer, more persuasive briefs.",{"@graph":63,"@context":119},[64,80,102],{"@type":65,"itemListElement":66},"BreadcrumbList",[67,71,74,77],{"item":68,"name":69,"@type":70,"position":9},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":72,"name":10,"@type":70,"position":73},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/",2,{"item":75,"name":41,"@type":70,"position":76},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/letters/",3,{"item":78,"name":59,"@type":70,"position":79},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/writing-like-a-photographer-thinks-using-ansel-adamss-composition-principles-to-write-more-effective-persuasive-introductions-and-conclusions/200514/",4,{"url":78,"name":59,"@type":81,"image":82,"author":87,"headline":59,"publisher":90,"fileFormat":93,"inLanguage":57,"description":61,"dateModified":94,"datePublished":95,"encodingFormat":93,"isAccessibleForFree":96,"interactionStatistic":97},"DigitalDocument",{"url":83,"@type":84,"width":85,"height":86},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/writing-like-a-photographer-thinks-using-ansel-adamss-composition-principles-to-write-more-effective-persuasive-introductions-and-conclusions/200514.png","ImageObject",442,249,{"name":88,"@type":89},"Pentious","Person",{"url":68,"name":91,"@type":92},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-06","2026-09-04",true,{"@type":98,"interactionType":99,"userInteractionCount":101},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":100},"ViewAction",6,{"@type":103,"mainEntity":104},"FAQPage",[105,111,115],{"name":106,"@type":107,"acceptedAnswer":108},"What is the article’s core argument about persuasive legal writing?","Question",{"text":109,"@type":110},"Persuasive legal writers can improve by applying photographic composition principles. In particular, introductions should show where the writer stands and conclusions should show how the writer feels about the issue.","Answer",{"name":112,"@type":107,"acceptedAnswer":113},"How should an introduction be written according to the article?",{"text":114,"@type":110},"The introduction should tell the reader where the writer stands on the issue in the case, rather than using the traditional roadmap approach.",{"name":116,"@type":107,"acceptedAnswer":117},"How should a conclusion be written, and what traditional approach does it replace?",{"text":118,"@type":110},"The conclusion should tell the reader how the writer feels about the issue in the case. It replaces the traditional summary conclusion that tells the reader what has already been said.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":78,"og:type":121,"og:title":59,"og:site_name":91,"og:description":61},"article",{"robots":123,"canonical":78},"index,follow",{"doc_id":125,"site_id":56},200514,1788509186,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":128},{"doc_id":125,"user_id":129,"nickname":88,"user_avatar":130,"doc_module":9,"category_id":40,"category_name":41,"doc_title":59,"doc_description":61,"doc_content":131,"file_id":132,"file_url":133,"file_type":134,"file_size":135,"view_count":101,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":9,"is_downloadable":9,"audit_status":9,"page_count":136,"language":137,"language_code":57,"site_id":56,"html_lang":57,"table_of_contents":138,"faqs":139,"seo_title":140,"seo_description":61,"update_tm":126,"read_time":25},1374404730887,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8","WRITING LIKE A PHOTOGRAPHER THINKS:  \nUSING ANSEL ADAMS’S COMPOSITION PRINCIPLES TO WRITE MORE EFFECTIVE PERSUASIVE INTRODUCTIONSAND CONCLUSIONS  \nBret Rappaport*  \nIn recent years, legal writing scholars and practitioners have looked beyond the confines of traditional scholarship and practice to show how understanding other artistic forms of communication can inform and enhance legal writing.1 In this vein, I argue that persuasive legal writers will benefit from understanding and applying photographic composition principles to their writings.  \nSpecifically, this article explores two principles of composition employed by twentieth century landscape photographer Ansel Adams. I argue that one of those principles should apply to legal  \n* Bret, a practicing attorney for more than 35 years, is a lecturer in the English Department at Lake Forest College in Lake Forest, Illinois. He earned a B.S. in finance from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, a J.D. from University of Illinois Chicago, and an M.A. in Rhetoric, Writing, and Discourse from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois.  \nAll photographs used in this article are courtesy of the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust and are copywritten. Thank you to Claudia Rice, Trustee and General Manager, The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust, for all her assistance in the reprinting of the images, for her encouragement, and for helping to safekeep Ansel Adams body of work. I also want to thank University of New Mexico legal writing Professor Emerita Barbara P. Blumenfeld for her suggestions and edits to this article. Thankyou to my law partner John Eggert for the skillful use of his editor’s pen. Also, a thank you to my son-in-law Ian Corse for editing and suggested changes to this article. I took up photography as a youngster at the urging and mentorship of my late father, Earle—thank you dad. Finally, thank you to my wife of nearly 40 years, Jina, for her unwavering support of my scholarship and, for—well—everything!  \n1 For example, fiction writing (Pam Jenoff, The Self-Assessed Writer: Harnessing Fiction Writing Processes to Understand Ourselves as Legal Writers and Maximize Legal Writing Productivity, 10 LEGAL COMM. & RHETORIC 187 (2013)); screenwriting (Teresa M. Bruce, The Architecture of Drama: How Lawyers Can Use Screenwriting Techniques to Tell More Compelling Stories, 23 LEGAL WRITING 47 (2019)), and even nineteenth century horror writing (Julie A. Oseid, What Lawyers Can Learn from Edgar Allan Poe, 15 LEGAL COMM. & RHETORIC 233 (2018)) .  \n264 The Journal of the Legal Writing Institute Vol. 28  \nwriting introductions, and the other principle should apply to legal writing conclusions. Adams stated these photographic composition principles as follows:  \nA good photograph is knowing where to stand.2  \nA great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed . . .3  \nApplying these principles to legal writing, the legal writer in an introduction should tell the reader where the writer stands on the issue in the case. In the conclusion of the same brief, the legal writer should tell the reader how the writer feels about the issue in the case. The corollary to this argument is that the traditional legal writing roadmap introduction (tell the reader what you are going to say) and the traditional legal writing summary conclusion (tell the reader what you already said) should be omitted.  \nI. Ansel Adams  \nAnsel Adams looms large as the twentieth century’s greatest landscape photographer. Born in 1902, Adams “was a rare and wonderful man, an artist with a unified vision, and intellect with a multiplicity of interests.”4 At sixteen, Adams traveled to Yosemite and began making photographs; he made them the rest of his life. Adams’s iconic black and white images are “elegant, handsomely composed, technically flawless photographs of magnificent natural landscapes.”5 The citation to Adams’s 1980 Presidential Medal of ","cbCaidiFhjlh3qk3","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaidiFhjlh3qk3","pdf",2224359,42,"English","# Writing Like a Photographer Thinks\n## Using Ansel Adams’s Composition Principles\n## Ansel Adams\n## It’s All Communication: The Overlap of Photographic Composition and Writing","[{\"question\":\"What is the article’s core argument about persuasive legal writing?\",\"answer\":\"Persuasive legal writers can improve by applying photographic composition principles. In particular, introductions should show where the writer stands and conclusions should show how the writer feels about the issue.\"},{\"question\":\"How should an introduction be written according to the article?\",\"answer\":\"The introduction should tell the reader where the writer stands on the issue in the case, rather than using the traditional roadmap approach.\"},{\"question\":\"How should a conclusion be written, and what traditional approach does it replace?\",\"answer\":\"The conclusion should tell the reader how the writer feels about the issue in the case. It replaces the traditional summary conclusion that tells the reader what has already been said.\"}]","Writing Like a Photographer Thinks - Using Ansel Adams’s Composition Principles to Write More Effective Persuasive Introductions and Conclusions | PDF"]