What makes for a great communicator in trial (or elsewhere when the person is trying to convince an audience)? To be a great communicator you should concentrate on three things:
1. Your WORDS
2. Your VISUALS – MEDIA
3. Your DELIVERY
The prior post (How to be a Great Communicator in Trial: Part 1 Your Words) focused on the words that a persuasive trial lawyer uses. This post covers trial visuals and the next post will examine how to deliver the words and visuals.
When your opening statement tells a chronological story, a visual timeline can enable you to communicate the story in a dynamic way. Different types of timelines can be created. Above is a vertical timeline.
And this is a classic horizontal timeline:
With Timeline by Lexis Nexis, you can build a timeline by just filling in the dates, times, and a description of the event. (https://www.lexisnexis.com/pdf/CaseMap/TOTG/Using_TimeMap.pdf)
During the opening statement in the Derik Chauvin trial for the murder of George Floyd, the prosecutor used a timeline to tell the chronological story. Watch that portion of the opening, which begins at 6 and a half minutes into his opening statement.
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