There are 3 questions today:
Do you love to write?
Do you work in advertising agency?
Are you a copywriter?
If there's an answer "
yes" to one of these questions, than the memo below is for you.
This is a memo, which one David Ogilvy sent in 1982 to all agency employees and it's titled "How to write".
It's interesting to read the advices of David Ogilvy on writing. Enjoy it!
"The better you write, the higher you go in Ogilvy & Mather. People who
think well, write well.
Woolly minded people write woolly memos, woolly letters and woolly speeches.
Good writing is not a natural gift. You have to learn to write well. Here
are 10 hints:
1. Read the Roman-Raphaelson
book on writing. Read it three times.
2. Write the way you talk. Naturally.
3. Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.
4. Never use jargon words like
reconceptualize,
demassification,
attitudinally,
judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a
pretentious ass.
5. Never write more than two pages on any subject.
6. Check your quotations.
7. Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the
next morning — and then edit it.
8. If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.
9. Before you send your letter or your memo, make sure it is crystal clear
what you want the recipient to do.
10. If you want ACTION, don’t write. Go and tell the guy what you want.
David"
Source of information: Lists of Note
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
