Politics

Judge David Weinzweig | 1.16.2026 8:01 AM

Make the important interesting.  —James Fallows

We have plumbed the depths of abstract words, but what about abstract ideas? Abstractions are a fact of professional life. The law is littered with them. Think of the legislative process, intellectual property and apportionment of congressional seats. These concepts or ideas are hard to understand because readers cannot see, touch, taste, hear or smell them. Readers cannot grasp or shape them in the mind's eye.

Concrete renditions of abstract material give respite to weary readers who must hurdle abstraction after abstraction like it's a track and field event. A visual image or concrete example anchors your ideas in the physical world. Research and my experience show the elixir for abstractions is analogies, pictures, charts and rhetorical figures.

A. Analogies, Metaphors and Similes

First is analogies, metaphors, and similes, each a figurative device. They broadcast a high-definition picture straight to the human brain.........

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