COLLECTING EVIDENCE

Every lawyer knows that, to persuade effectively, you need sound evidence to support a convincing argument. To quote Rudolph Flesch, a key teacher in effective writing: 'You'll never convince anyone by logic alone.'

You've worked out the pyramid of your ideas. Now you need the evidence to support them.

Does it seem odd that we should think about collecting evidence after working out our ideas? Surely we must look at the evidence before coming to a conclusion.

That seems to make sense. But, if you think about it, you cannot look for any evidence unless you know what it might be evidence for. And the only thing that evidence can support is an idea.