Writing (and Reading) Appellate Briefs in the Digital Age
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WRITING (AND READING) APPELLATE BRIEFS
IN THE DIGITAL AGE
Mary Beth Beazley*
Readers-appellate judges and appellate lawyers among
them-are transitioning from reading paper documents to
reading a mix of paper and digital documents.1 Simultaneously,
researchers are studying the impact that this transition has had
on the process of reading.2 Although these studies rarely focus
on judges or lawyers,3 many scientists are studying how our
*Professor of Law and Director of Legal Writing, Moritz College of Law, Ohio State
University. The author benefited from participating in a discussion of digital-reading issues
between Judge Theodore McKee, of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third
Circuit, and several law faculty who teach legal writing held at the 2014 Conference of the
Legal Writing Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The discussion was organized and
moderated by Professor Ian Gallacher of Syracuse University College of Law. The author
also thanks Roger Hanson for his excellent editorial advice and guidance, and thanks
especially Matt Cooper, of the Moritz Law Library, for invaluable research assistance.
1. E.g. Anne Mangen, Bente R. Walgermo & Kolbjom Bronnick, Reading Linear
Texts on Paper versus Computer Screen: Effects on Reading Comprehension, 58 Intl. J. of
Educ. Research 61, 61 (2013) (There is an ongoing transition of reading from print to
screen[,] and the book is challenged by an increasing number of digital reading devices);
Raymond P. Ward, How U.S.Sth Circuit Judges Read Briefs, Louisiana Civil Appeals, http:
//raymondpward.typepad.com /la-appellate/2013/1 0/how-us-5th-circuit-judges-read-briefs
.html (Oct. 8, 2013) (noting that most of the [Fifth Circuit] judges read brief[s] on iPads)
(accessed Sept. 10, 2014; copy on file with Journal of Appellate Practice & Process).
2. E.g. Rakefet Ackerman & Morris Goldsmith, Metacognitive Regulation of Text
Learning: On Screen Versus on Paper, 17:1 J. Experimental Psychol.: Applied 18 (Mar.
2011).
3. Undergraduate and graduate students are the subjects of many empirical research
studies, e.g. Geoffrey B. Duggan & Stephen J. Payne, Text Skimming: The Process and
Effectiveness of Foraging Through Text Under Time Pressure, 15 J. Experimental
Psychol.: Applied 228, 230 (2009) (noting research about a group of thirty-two students
from England's University of Manchester, mean age 21.75 years); but see Craig Tashman
& W. Keith Edwards, Active Reading and Its Discontents: The Situations, Problems and
Ideas of Readers, CHI 2011, Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in
Computing Systems 2927, 2929 (2011) (noting the problem of overuse of student
populations in studies, and choosing a more diverse group of knowledge workers that
included two IP Lawyers).
THE JOURNAL OF APPELLATE PRACTICE AND PROCESS Vol. 15, No. 1 (Spring 2014)](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/jappp15&div=9&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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