Rhetoric Day 93.1
A Statement of Facts should have three qualities: brevity, clarity, and plausibility. . . We shall be able to make the Statement of Facts brief if we begin it at the place at which we need to begin; if we do not try to recount from the remotest beginning; if our Statement of Facts is summary and not detailed; if we carry it forward, not to the furthermost point, but to the point to which we need to go; if we use no digressions and do not wander from the account we have undertaken to set forth; and if we present the outcome in such a way that the facts have preceded can also be known, although we have not spoken of them. For example, if I should say that I have returned from the province, it would also be understood that I had gone to the province. [I]n general it is better to pass by not only that which weakens the cause but also that which neither weakens nor helps it.
- Cicero "Ad Herennium"
