A. Partisan politics determine nominations to office;
B. Advantageous contracts cannot be made;
C. The responsibility for expenditures is scattered.
Each of these assertions clearly needs to be supported before it will be accepted. Let us follow out the support of the first one, and set down here the reasons and facts which will make it incontestable.
A. Partisan politics determine nominations to office; for
1. The organization of the national parties is permanent.
2. There has been bargaining between parties to reward political services with city offices.
1. The organization of the national parties is permanent.
2. There has been bargaining between parties to reward political services with city offices.
Of these points the first is an obvious fact; in the argument it will need only slight development and specification to make its bearing on the case effective. The second, on the other hand, must be supported by evidence; and in the brief, accordingly, we should refer to the facts as stated in newspapers of specified dates from which full quotation would be made in the argument. Here then, in both cases, though in different ways, we get down to the bed rock of fact on which the reasoning is built up. At the same time, each joint in the framework of the reasoning has been laid bare, so that no weak place can escape detection. These are always the two main objects of making a brief—to get down to the facts on which the reasoning is built up, and to display every essential step in the reasoning.
26. Rules for Briefing. The rules given below are divided into two groups: those in the first group deal chiefly with the form of the brief; those in the second go more to the substance; but the distinction between the two groups is far from being absolute.
I
1. A brief may be divided into three parts: the Introduction, the Proof, the Conclusion. Of these the Introduction should contain noncontentious matter, and the Conclusion should be a restatement of the proposition, with a bare summary of the main issues in affirmative (or negative) form.
The introduction has already been dealt with at length (see pp. 48-81). The conclusion brings the main points of the argument together, and gives an effect of workmanlike completeness to the brief. It should never introduce new points.
2. In the Introduction keep each step of the analysis by itself, and indicate the several parts by such headings as "The following terms need definition," "The following facts are agreed on," "The following points will be left out of consideration in this argument" "The chief contentions on the two sides are as follows," "The main issues on which the argument will be made are as follows."