Generally, you should imitate the tone and writing style in the good examples and not in the text itself.

Tone and writing style should change to reflect the needs of particular types of documents and of particular audiences, and only the examples are purposely written in the style that is appropriate for brief writing.

Your writing teachers may have already told you not to imitate judicial writing styles because the needs of judges and clerks (the audience for a brief) differ from the needs of the readers of judicial decisions. Similarly, you should not model your brief-writing style after the writing style of the text in this book. Unlike the good examples in this book, I did not write the text material in formal brief style. Although I followed many conventions that also apply to brief writing, I used a tone and writing style that is more like the one that I use when I write comments on student papers. I use contractions, attempt humor, and include unusual metaphors, many of which could easily hinder the effectiveness of a brief. Thus, you should use a particular writing technique only when that technique is consistent with the rules and conventions of the court to which you are writing.

Bearing these caveats in mind, the examples should provide an opportunity for you to see how various writing decisions play out in the context of real cases and real (student) briefs. I hope that you find them helpful.

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Source: Beazley Mary Beth. A Practical Guide to Appellate Advocacy. Fifth Edition. — Wolters Kluwer Law,2018. — 475 p.. 2018

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Generally, you should imitate the tone and writing style in the good examples and not in the text itself.

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