How To Write Like a Human - by Claire Dawson
65
2640 Lyndale Ave. South | Minneapolis, Minnesota 55408 | T +1 612 279 1400 | www.zeusjones.com How to Write October 2, 2015
-
Upload
zeus-jones -
Category
Marketing
-
view
3.086 -
download
3
Transcript of How To Write Like a Human - by Claire Dawson
2640 Lyndale Ave. South | Minneapolis, Minnesota 55408 | T +1 612 279 1400 | www.zeusjones.com
How to WriteOctober 2, 2015
All you have to do is say what you mean.
Writing isn’t scary.
Image credit: Walking with Dinosaurs 3D
• Know what you want to say.
• Be concise.
• Be clear.
• Edit.
The Four Rules of Saying What You Mean
Image via: http://favim.com/image/122614/
Rule # 1: Know what you want to say
Figure out what you want to say
Plan what you’re going to say
Key ideas:
Image credit: Deviantart user freestarisis
In order to say what you mean, you have to know what you mean.
Image credit: Threadless user Elisha Hale
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
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.)
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 OutlineHow do we bring an extinct brand back to life?
Image credit: Charlotte Vogel, from Noun Project
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
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
Figure out what you want to say
Plan what you’re going to say
Key ideas:
Image credit: Deviantart user freestarisis
Rule # 2: Be concise
No extra words
Cut what you don’t need
Short sentences are powerful
Key ideas:
Image credit: Deviantart user Ben Heine
It’s important that you don’t use more words than you absolutely need to.
Image credit: Nature of New England
It’s important that you don’t use more words than you absolutely need to.
Image credit: Nature of New England
Don’t use more words than you need.
Image credit: Sweetsixty via Zazzle
Don’t use more words than you need. Use only the words you need.
Image credit: Kelig Le Luron, from Noun Project
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
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
Get rid of anything you can.
Cut extra words.
Image credit: Kelig Le Luron, from Noun Project
Often, the shorter the sentence, the more powerful it is.
Image credit: Nature of New England
Often, the shorter the sentence, the more powerful it is.
Image credit: Sweetsixty via Zazzle
Short sentences are powerful.
Image credit: Kelig Le Luron, from Noun Project
No extra words
Cut what you don’t need
Short sentences are powerful
Key ideas:
Image credit: Deviantart user Ben Heine
Rule # 3: Be clear
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
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
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
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
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)
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
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
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
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
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
LEARNINGS
LEARNINGS
LESSONS
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
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
Rule # 4: Edit
Restate your points
Take a break and come back
Read out loud
Show someone else
Key ideas:
Image credit: Deviantart user AlexKonstad
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
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
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
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
Restate your points
Take a break and come back
Read out loud
Show someone else
Key ideas:
Image credit: Deviantart user AlexKonstad
• Know what you want to say.
• Be concise.
• Be clear.
• Edit.
The Four Rules of Saying What You Mean
Image credit: Redbubble user JurassicArt
And, most importantly…
You’re a person, talking to people.
Write like it.
Be human.
Image credit: Deviantart user zillabean
Bonus tips
You are not required to avoid using contractions.
It is awkward and makes you sound like you cannot relax.
Image credit: Hascora, kwejk.pl
You are not required to avoid using contractions.
It is awkward and makes you sound like you cannot relax.
Image credit: Hascora, kwejk.pl
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
Words in a row do not make a sentence.
Image credit: Threadless user DinoMike
What is the most intuitive language we can use to easily navigate consumers through the optimal dinosaur experience?
Image credit: Threadless user DinoMike
What is the most intuitive language we can use to easily navigate consumers through the optimal dinosaur experience?
Image credit: Threadless user DinoMike
What’s the most intuitive language we can use to help consumers easily navigate the dinosaur experience?
Image credit: Threadless user DinoMike
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
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
One last thing
Safety first. Always check your contractions.
Image credit: Redbubble user thekohakudragon
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
