clarity and simplicity are essential togood thesis writing.

2 Next, develop subordinate ideasthat support your thesis. Here are afew possibilities:

All our users also use toothpaste—we’ve got a captive market with 100%penetration.

Remembering to buy toothpaste beforethe tube runs out is a tiresome chore.

Consumers will love a talking tube oftoothpaste.

Our clients will associate fresh breathwith our software and therefore want tobuy more of our products.

Now you’ve got four subordinate ideashere. But what order should you putthem in? What’s the glue that will holdthem together?

3 Finally, choose the best structurefor your argument. Now it’s time tochoose the organizational principle thatwill allow you to structure your argu-ment in the strongest possible way. Hereare four basic organizational principlesyou might use; which is best depends onthe nature of your argument.

Problem/solution. Often the strongestway to organize an argument quickly,problem/solution is easy to followbecause it corresponds to a commonthought process.

In this case, only one of the subordinateideas is a problem: Remembering to buytoothpaste before the tube runs out is atiresome chore. The others are neitherproblems nor solutions to the problemidentified. So you have to identify otherproblems to which the subordinateideas will serve as solutions:

Our sales are flagging.

—We can really boost our sales byextending our brand into the lucrativetoothpaste market because all our usersalso use toothpaste.

Consumers interact with our currentproducts only when they’re working attheir PCs; we need our brand to touchtheir personal as well as their profes-sional lives.

—After our clients buy our intelligenttoothpaste, they will associate our soft-ware with the pleasant, confident feel-ing having fresh breath gives them;they’ll therefore want to buy more of ourproducts.

Remembering to buy toothpaste beforethe tube runs out is a tiresome chore.

—Our intelligent toothpaste will ensurethat our customers always have tooth-paste on hand; they’ll appreciate thisconvenience.

It’s hard to get consumers’ attention inthe crowded high-tech marketplace.

—A talking tube of toothpaste will gettheir notice because it’s new, different,and technologically sophisticated.

Cause/effect. This organizational prin-ciple can also be quite effective, butamong the subordinate ideas there areno causes, only effects. Thus these ideaswill have to be reworked to strengthenthe connections among them:

We have an information database of allour users.

Because they’re aware of the impor-tance of good dental hygiene, they alluse toothpaste.

They each face the daily challenge ofensuring they have toothpaste on hand.

If we can meet that challenge by makingit easy for them to accomplish this smallbut vital need, our users will be gratefuland will begin to love our talking tube.

Writing Well When Time Is TightUsing basic organizational principles, you can create

a quick, clear presentation of your ideas.

WRITING BY NICK MORGAN

M AY 2 0 0 2 � 5

continued on page 6

t’s 2 a.m. the night before you haveto present your strategy for reviving

slumping sales. You’ve come up withnothing all these weeks—until now.Eureka! It’s all about brand extension,you suddenly realize, and tomorrowyou’re going to stand before the boardand suggest—intelligent toothpaste.

Yes, intelligent toothpaste. Your littlesoftware company will market a brandof toothpaste containing a chip that dis-penses instructions for better brushingand reorders the toothpaste when thetube is low. You’ll need to set up jointpartnership agreements with Wal-Martand FedEx, but you’ll write out thedetails of that later. Right now it’s timeto get your proposal written and time’sin short supply. And writing was neveryour best subject.

Here’s a three-step fast writing processthat will help you express yourselfclearly. If you find yourself with timelater to add some polish, great. Butwhen your chief goals are speed andclarity, it will get the job done.

1 First, formulate a thesis, or mainpoint. This should be one sentence thatarticulates the idea and its benefits forthe intended audience. In this case, thethesis might be something like:

A brand extension of our software intointelligent toothpaste will revive ourflagging sales.

Note that the thesis doesn’t capture thefull richness and scope of the idea. Itdoesn’t mention the joint partnershipswith Wal-Mart and FedEx, for exam-ple, nor does it explain what intelligenttoothpaste might actually be. But itdoes detail the benefit that the audi-ence—the board—expects to hear.Note too that the concept and its benefitare directly, not indirectly, linked. Such

I

As much as we dress up a marketing e-mail with bells and whistles, we’re notreaching people in a new way; the tech-nology is old hat. But a talking tube oftoothpaste—that’s seriously cutting-edge. It has a fun, trendy feel and thepotential to become a status item amonga highly desirable demographic. Thestatus we gain from this innovativeproduct will enhance the reputation ofour other offerings.

Our clients will associate fresh breathand cutting-edge technology with ourproducts and will want to buy more. Incontrast, a marketing e-mail offersnothing special for the customer toassociate with our products; indeed,those who perceive the e-mail as a nui-sance could come to perceive our prod-ucts as nuisances.

Chronology. Arguments structuredalong chronological lines can highlightthe time and data that have already goneinto a project. Say, for instance, thatyour little software company had previ-ously extended its brand into auxiliaryconsumer products such as talkingstuffed animals. A chronological pres-entation of when the various steps ofthat process were made and what theresults were could help you make yourargument as to why extending the brand

into intelligent toothpaste is a good ideaand why doing it right now is soundbusiness strategy. Arranging handoutmaterial chronologically might alsomake sense, even if you’ve ordered yourargument using one of the other organ-izing principles.

Once you’ve put your subordinate ideastogether in one of these four ways, youneed to flesh out details that willstrengthen your argument. Use the mainthesis as a check—include nothing thatdoes not support it. Your thesis shouldbe the topic sentence of your first para-graph, and the subordinate ideas, per-haps with some modification, should bethe topic sentences for succeeding para-graphs. Then all that’s left to do is con-struct a quick close that reinforces thebig ideas in your strategy and seeks theaudience’s commitment to it.

The document you have once you’vecompleted this process may or may notbe rhetorically elegant, but it will beclear and logically sound. And that’s agood start. ❑

—Nick Morgan can be reached atnmorgan@hbsp.harvard.edu

Writing Well, continued

H A R VA R D M A N A G E M E N T C O M M U N I C AT I O N L E T T E R � 6

In addition, they will associate ourbrand with fresh breath.

They will therefore have positive associ-ations that will lead them to want to buymore of our products.

Comparison/contrast. Using com-parison/contrast is a good way to high-light the advantages of one model while pointing out the disadvantages ofanother. In this case, you’re going toshow how marketing intelligent tooth-paste provides more benefits than theidea currently on the table: launching ane-mail campaign using rented lists.

What features do these plans have incommon? This is the “compare” part ofyour argument. In this case, it’s prettysimple: Both aim to increase sales. Butthat’s where the similarity ends. Youmight begin this way:

The brand extension plan and the e-mail marketing plan have a commongoal: reviving flagging sales.

Now it’s time to go into the “contrast”part of your argument. Here’s whereyou hit your subordinate ideas one byone, building on their benefits whiledemonstrating the inferiority of theother plan:

All our users also use toothpaste—we’ve got a captive market with 100percent penetration. In targeting thismarket, we’re reaching out to peoplewho know us and our products well. Wecan’t expect anything close to this levelof brand recognition among those onthe rented e-mail lists. And given thelevel of spam these days, sending outthis e-mail could actually damage ourcredibility with those who do know us.

Remembering to buy toothpaste beforethe tube runs out is a tiresome chore.Not only will our intelligent toothpasteensure that our customers never run outof toothpaste, it will also save them thetime they would have spent going to thestore to buy more. But it’s likely thatmany people who receive our e-mailwill perceive it as a waste of time.

© 2002 The New Yorker Collection from cartoonbank.com. All Rights Reserved.

“It’s plotted out. I just have to write it.”

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