One line that tells you if your evidence is ready

Here is a test I used for every single exhibit in my petition.

Before I included a document, I wrote one sentence next to it:

"This proves ______ because ______."

If I could fill in both blanks clearly, the exhibit was ready.

If I could not, it meant one of two things:

1. I did not actually understand how the evidence supported my case
2. The evidence did not support my case

Both are useful things to discover before you submit.

A PDF in a folder is not evidence. A PDF with a clear connection to a specific claim is evidence.

I had 40 exhibits in my final petition. Every single one had a sentence like this. Some were obvious. Some took me twenty minutes to articulate. Those twenty minutes were never wasted.

The ones I could not write a sentence for? I cut them. The petition got shorter and stronger.

Try it with your next three documents. You will know immediately which ones are doing real work and which ones are just making you feel better.