This document provides tips for writing concisely and clearly. It begins with four main rules: know what you want to say, be concise, be clear, and edit. It then elaborates on each rule with examples and additional tips. Some key points include planning before writing, cutting unnecessary words, avoiding jargon, getting feedback from others, and writing in a relaxed, human tone. Proper use of grammar like contractions is also emphasized. The overall message is to focus on distilling ideas down to their essence and using language that is easy to understand.

1. 2640 Lyndale Ave. South | Minneapolis, Minnesota 55408 | T +1 612 279 1400 | www.zeusjones.com
How to Write
October 2, 2015

2. All you have to do is say what you mean.
Writing isn’t scary.
Image credit: Walking with Dinosaurs 3D

3. • Know what you want to say.
• Be concise.
• Be clear.
• Edit.
The Four Rules of Saying What You Mean
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4. Rule # 1:
Know what you want to say

5. Figure out what you want to say
Plan what you’re going to say
Key ideas:
Image credit: Deviantart user freestarisis

6. In order to say what you mean,
you have to know what you mean.
Image credit: Threadless user Elisha Hale

7. Jumping into writing can sometimes work, especially in long form, but in a short
form like a keynote deck, it often causes the story to get muddled and told out of
order.
Instead, take a minute (or an hour, or a day) to think about what you’re really trying to
say.
Think first.
Image credit: LonelyDinosaur user Sam Smith

8. Ways to plan
Outline
Reverse Outline
Boring, but classic. Organizing your thoughts into levels of importance helps you
understand how evidence, examples, and ideas support your main points.
Start at the end and work backward. Once you’ve figured out where you want the deck
to end up, work your way through the best outline to lead you there.
Visualize
Jump In
Mind maps or bubble charts can help group ideas together and show the relationships
between them, especially if you’re a more visual thinker.
Start writing, but be prepared to go back through and destroy 90% of what you’ve
created to get to the good stuff. (This is generally what we do at ZJ. It is not, you’ll note,
the most efficient method of planning.)

9. Solution
- Belief and purpose
o Capitalize on brand history and
recognition
o Articulate core values
- Pursuits
o Show values through action
o Connect with Gen X and
Millennials through shared
values
Bring the brand back to life
History of the brand
- 225 mya – Triassic
o Birth of the brand
- 205-144 mya – Jurassic
o The classic dinosaurs – high
penetration and brand loyalty
- 144-65 mya – Cretaceous
o Declines in year-to-year sales,
loss of popularity over time
o Bottom falls out of the market
- Modern era
o Novelty brand (95% of market)
o Lifestyle brand (5% of market)
Problem
- Limited audience
o Kids are the main demo
o Educated/niche adults
secondary demo
o Gatekeeper moms
- Crowded market/competition
o Dragons
o Pirates
o Other charismatic megafauna
- What’s missing?
o Connection to heritage brand
status
o Shared values
o Actions over image
Classic Outline
How do we bring an extinct brand back to life?
Image credit: Charlotte Vogel, from Noun Project

10. Reverse Outline
Before we discuss the market, we need
to evaluate the history of the brand
- 225 mya – Triassic
o Birth of the brand
- 205-144 mya – Jurassic
o The classic dinosaurs – high
penetration and brand loyalty
- 144-65 mya – Cretaceous
o Declines in year-to-year sales,
loss of popularity over time
o Bottom falls out of the market
- Modern era
o Novelty brand (95% of market)
o Lifestyle brand (5% of market)
How do we get to that framework for
this brand?
- Pursuits
o Actions resonate with audience
o Actions bring core values to life
o Shared values drive brand equity
– and therefore, sales
- Belief and Purpose
o Capitalize on brand history
o Articulate core values
o Fuel pursuits (and make a
connection to values)
What problems do B&P solve?
- No core values
- No connections to audience
- Limited audience
o Kids
o Educated adults
- Crowded market
o Dragons
o Pirates
o Ninjas
o Charismatic megafauna
Belief, purpose, and pursuits framework can bring an extinct brand back to life.
Image credit: Charlotte Vogel, from Noun Project

11. Bring an extinct brand
back to life.
Brand history
Problem
Solution
Triassic
Jurassic
Creta.
Modern era
“Lifestyle brand”
Crowded
market
Limited
audience
Kids
Edu.
adults
NinjasPiratesDragons
What’s
missing
ActionsValuesHeritage
Belief and
Purpose
Values
History
Pursuits
Connect with
Millennials and
GenX
Mind Map
Image credit: Charlotte Vogel, from Noun Project

12. Figure out what you want to say
Plan what you’re going to say
Key ideas:
Image credit: Deviantart user freestarisis

13. Rule # 2:
Be concise

14. No extra words
Cut what you don’t need
Short sentences are powerful
Key ideas:
Image credit: Deviantart user Ben Heine

15. It’s important that you don’t use
more words than you absolutely
need to.
Image credit: Nature of New England

16. It’s important that you don’t use
more words than you absolutely
need to.
Image credit: Nature of New England

17. Don’t use more words than you need.
Image credit: Sweetsixty via Zazzle

18. Don’t use more words than you need.
Use only the words you need.
Image credit: Kelig Le Luron, from Noun Project

19. Unless you think they’re vital for the audience to understand what you’re trying to
communicate, cut words, phrases, and sentences that are padding your text. If you
CAN get rid of them, you probably should.
When in doubt, cut extra words.
Image credit: Nature of New England

20. Unless you think they’re vital for the audience to understand what you’re trying to
communicate, cut words, phrases, and sentences that are padding your text. If you
CAN get rid of them, you probably should.
When in doubt, cut extra words.
Image credit: Sweetsixty via Zazzle

21. Get rid of anything you can.
Cut extra words.
Image credit: Kelig Le Luron, from Noun Project

22. Often, the shorter the sentence,
the more powerful it is.
Image credit: Nature of New England

23. Often, the shorter the sentence,
the more powerful it is.
Image credit: Sweetsixty via Zazzle

24. Short sentences are powerful.
Image credit: Kelig Le Luron, from Noun Project

25. No extra words
Cut what you don’t need
Short sentences are powerful
Key ideas:
Image credit: Deviantart user Ben Heine

26. Rule # 3:
Be clear

27. Simplify
Avoid jargon*
Don’t invent words**
Key ideas:
*Unless it serves a clear purpose
**Unless you think the client needs to be impressed, and will be by invented words
Image credit: Deviantart user Mr. Jack

28. Sometimes it seems easier to use jargon as shorthand for ideas that you’re sure everyone
understands. But you’d better be really sure.
In all other cases, reducing complexity makes messages MORE powerful, not LESS.
Making yourself hard to understand doesn’t help anyone

29. Utilizing complexity in an
attempt to create
informational synergies
routinely results in your
audience’s failure to
resonate with your key
messages.
Image credit: Redbubble user Rebekie Bennington

30. When you complicate
ideas in order to connect
them to each other,
people don’t understand
what you’re saying.
Image credit: Redbubble user Lexisketch

31. Jargon can act as shorthand: When jargon allows people to express complex ideas
that everyone understands in a shorter form, it helps.
Jargon can recognize client needs: It can also be helpful in reflecting the clients’
own language so they know their priorities have been considered.
Jargon has its uses (but they’re few)

32. Even in these cases, it still might be better to say what you mean clearly, because it
helps people remember the real meaning behind the terms they’ve grown
accustomed to.
In every other case, jargon makes you less clear, and less likely to successfully
communicate your message.
You still might not need it

33. T. Rexes and raptors respond to very different RTBs.
Acronyms can provide easy shorthand for terms everyone’s clear on.
The extra clicks are going to be a big barrier to entry for the saurian demo.
Technical terms and phrases with an established meaning can reinforce authority.
Our goals for the year are awareness, trial, and conversion. We need to sell more dinos.*
Client-prioritized terms can make clients feel recognized.
*This one’s debatable. What if it said, “Our goals for the year are for people to know who we are, to try our product, and to become loyal
buyers of all dinosaur products,” instead?
Helpful use of jargon
Image credit: Redbubble userTeo Zirinis

34. We’ll bucket the learnings from our ideation session.
Complexity for no reason is a way to avoid saying what you really mean.
Better: We’ll find the themes that connect our best ideas.
The experience should be both disruptive and delightful.
Buzzwords* make your message harder to understand.
Better: The experience should be both innovative and fun.
We’ll leverage our assets to create a robust digital experience on our owned properties.
Cliches don’t sound impressive; they sound cliched. They also omit detail.
Better: We’ll create videos and tools with our partners that will live on our site.
*They can be useful for impressing the client, if that’s what needs to be done. But they also run the risk of being outdated, or of the client
hating that particular trend or concept.
Unhelpful use of jargon
Image credit: Redbubble user Nathan Davis

35. Chances are good we already have a word for what you want to say.
Try to find one first.*
Then, if you must,** you can invent a new one or change an existing one into another
part of speech.
*If you can’t find one, ask your resident grammarian. Or the internet.
**The odds of this are almost zero.
Don’t invent or reinvent words
Image credit:Eric J. Bennett

36. What we say What it means
Agree
Agree
Agree
Cover
Come back
Script
Use
Request
Assigned
Built-in
Use
Head-nod
Align
Get on the same page
Cover off on
Circle back
Talktrack
Leverage
Ask
Tasked with
Baked-in
Utilize

37. LEARNINGS

38. LEARNINGS

39. LESSONS

40. You can use them, but make a decision to do it, and do it for a reason, not because you’re unclear about
what you really want to say or because you’re being lazy.
Jargon and invented words should be a choice, not a crutch.
Image credit:Hugh Murphy, TRexTrying,tumblr.com

41. Simplify
Avoid jargon*
Don’t invent words**
Key ideas:
*Unless it serves a clear purpose
**Unless you think the client needs to be impressed, and will be by invented words
Image credit: Deviantart user Mr. Jack

42. Rule # 4:
Edit

43. Restate your points
Take a break and come back
Read out loud
Show someone else
Key ideas:
Image credit: Deviantart user AlexKonstad

44. Try to read what you’ve written as though you’ve never read it, and then summarize
it for yourself.
Does it make sense?
Does it say what you’re trying to say?
Are the ideas in the right order?
Restate your own ideas
Image credit: Bill Watterson

45. When you can’t figure out what you really need to say, step away from what you’re
working on and come back later (ideally, at least overnight). You can’t read your own
words over and over again and expect to see or understand what’s wrong.
This is a good reason to plan ahead so you can avoid doing things at the last minute.
There’s a reason all-nighters are a bad idea.
Give your work some time
Image credit: Redbubble user Teo Zirinis

46. Reading your work out loud will often help you catch confusing sentences and
proofreading mistakes.
Read it out loud
Image credit:Louis D. Wiyono, www.artoflou.com

47. Even great writers are only as good as their editors. Someone else’s perspective is
the best way to find errors in your writing and make the best possible changes.
You don’t have to do everything your editor suggests,* but at least you’ll be aware of
more ways to improve your work.
*Except for the grammar stuff.
Ask for help
Image credit: Piper Thibodeau, www.piperthibodeau.com

48. Restate your points
Take a break and come back
Read out loud
Show someone else
Key ideas:
Image credit: Deviantart user AlexKonstad

49. • Know what you want to say.
• Be concise.
• Be clear.
• Edit.
The Four Rules of Saying What You Mean
Image credit: Redbubble user JurassicArt

50. And, most importantly…

51. You’re a person, talking to people.
Write like it.
Be human.
Image credit: Deviantart user zillabean

52. Bonus tips

53. You are not required to avoid
using contractions.
It is awkward and makes you
sound like you cannot relax.
Image credit: Hascora, kwejk.pl

54. You are not required to avoid
using contractions.
It is awkward and makes you
sound like you cannot relax.
Image credit: Hascora, kwejk.pl

55. You’re not required to avoid
using contractions.
It’s awkward and makes you
sound like you can’t relax.
Image credit: Hascora, kwejk.pl

56. Words in a row do not
make a sentence.
Image credit: Threadless user DinoMike

57. What is the most intuitive
language we can use to easily
navigate consumers through
the optimal dinosaur
experience?
Image credit: Threadless user DinoMike

58. What is the most intuitive
language we can use to easily
navigate consumers through
the optimal dinosaur
experience?
Image credit: Threadless user DinoMike

59. What’s the most intuitive
language we can use to help
consumers easily navigate
the dinosaur experience?
Image credit: Threadless user DinoMike

60. Over the course of the recent redesign, we evolved the dinosaur experience to better
support the raptor promotion by making more of the content available, a better support
system for individual species information and results as well as ensuring enthusiasts
could easily find the page through search and our own navigation.
Parallelism is your friend.
Image credit: Deviantart user Mr. Jack

61. See?
Over the course of the recent redesign, we evolved the dinosaur experience to better
support the raptor promotion by making more of the content available, creating a better
support system for individual species information and results, and ensuring enthusiasts
could easily find the page through search and our own navigation.
Image credit: Deviantart user Mr. Jack

62. One last thing

63. Safety first.
Always check your contractions.
Image credit: Redbubble user thekohakudragon

64. Your = belongs to you
You’re = you are
T. rex, your incorrect use of “your” means you’re not communicating well.
Their = belongs to them
They’re = they are
There = location/placeholder
When it comes to velociraptors, their impressions of how they’re communicating are
neither here nor there.
Its = belongs to it
It’s = it is
It’s not hard to see why grammar has its detractors.
Image credit: Threadless user ILOVEDOODLE