David Ogilvy: Be concise & precise when you write

Editor’s note: This article was reviewed and updated in July 2026 to meet Expert Editor’s latest editorial standards.

“Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs” – David Ogilvy

In 1962, Time Magazine declared advertising guru David Ogilvy as “the most sought-after wizard in today’s advertising industry”.

During his years as an advertising executive and agency founder, Ogilvy was considered one of the most original and creative “ad men” of his time, having developed iconic ad campaigns — including the line “One-quarter cleansing cream — Dove creams your skin while you wash” (a paraphrase of the campaign’s central message) and a line sometimes attributed to the early campaign: “I’m head over heels in DOVE!”

Today, Ogilvy’s advertising campaigns are still the stuff of legend. But while the “father of advertising” had plenty to teach us about productivity, branding, research, and ambition — his ideas on writing are just as priceless.

On September 7, 1982, Ogilvy sent the following memo to all agency employees, titled “How to Write”:

Most of Ogilvy’s 10 hints for writing concern being concise and precise.

As the founder of The Expert Editor, I have come across just about every type of document from all sorts of authors. They all had different aims and were targeting different audiences.

However, two common flaws permeated all this writing – wordiness and vagueness, which was exactly what David Ogilvy was railing against in his memo.

Wordiness and vagueness are often interrelated problems: using too many words to express yourself obscures your ideas. As Strunk and White tell us in The Elements of Style, “A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences”.

What wordiness and vagueness actually look like

It helps to see these two problems side by side. Consider the following wordy, vague sentence:

Before: “Due to the fact that there was a significant lack of sufficient consumer interest in the product, a decision was made by the team to discontinue it.”

Now compare it to a concise, precise revision:

After: “The team discontinued the product because consumers weren’t buying it.”

The revised sentence is less than half the length of the original, yet it carries the same — and arguably more forceful — meaning. Notice also the shift from passive voice (“a decision was made”) to active voice (“the team discontinued”), which is one of the most reliable tools for stripping wordiness from a sentence. Ogilvy himself was a champion of plain, direct language; his most memorable ad headlines never buried the subject.

Vagueness is a slightly different problem. A wordy sentence is too long; a vague sentence is too hollow. “Significant lack of sufficient consumer interest” sounds weighty but says very little. Replacing that phrase with the blunt fact — “consumers weren’t buying it” — grounds the reader in concrete reality rather than corporate fog.

Common habits that make writing wordy and vague

Knowing the enemy by name makes it easier to root out. Here are the most frequent culprits that inflate sentences and dilute meaning:

• Redundant pairs and padding phrases. Expressions like “each and every,” “basic and fundamental,” and “past history” say the same thing twice. Cut one half of the pair.
• Throat-clearing openers. Sentences that begin with “It is important to note that…” or “It should be mentioned that…” can almost always be trimmed to the actual point: drop the opener entirely and start with the subject.
• Nominalizations (turning verbs into nouns). Writing “make a decision” instead of “decide,” or “give consideration to” instead of “consider,” adds words and saps energy. The verb form is nearly always shorter and sharper.
• Vague intensifiers. Words like “very,” “quite,” “rather,” and “somewhat” rarely strengthen a sentence — they weaken it. “Very tired” is vaguer than “exhausted.” Choose the precise word and drop the modifier.
• Overuse of passive voice. Passive constructions hide who is doing what, which breeds both length and vagueness. Whenever possible, identify the actor and make them the subject of the sentence.
• Unnecessary qualifications. Hedging every claim with “it could be argued that” or “in some ways” erodes the reader’s confidence in your ideas. Qualify where genuine uncertainty exists; otherwise, commit to the statement.

How to write concisely and precisely

Writers can break the habit of being wordy and vague. To write concisely and precisely, always:

• Choose your words deliberately. Before settling on a word, ask whether a shorter or more specific alternative exists. “Purchase” can usually be “buy.” “Utilize” is almost always just “use.” Prefer the Anglo-Saxon over the Latinate where meaning is equal — shorter words land harder.
• Construct your sentences efficiently. Aim for one main idea per sentence. If a sentence requires a second reading to untangle, it almost certainly needs to be broken up or restructured. Read your draft aloud — the places where you stumble or run out of breath are the places to cut.
• Use grammar properly. Correct grammar is not just a stylistic nicety; it eliminates ambiguity. A misplaced modifier, a dangling participle, or a disagreement between subject and verb can change — or muddy — your intended meaning entirely.

Making concision a habit: the editing pass

Ogilvy’s memo was addressed to professionals writing in a high-stakes commercial environment, but the discipline he described applies equally to essays, reports, emails, and fiction. The key is to treat concision as an editing habit, not just a drafting aspiration.

A practical approach is to do a dedicated “cutting pass” after your main edit. In this pass, your only job is subtraction: for every sentence, ask whether any word can be removed without losing meaning. A target of cutting ten percent of your word count in this pass — without losing any ideas — will sharpen almost any piece of writing.

When re-writing and editing your work, keep being concise and precise in mind. Identify the bad habits that creep into your writing, and resolve not to repeat them.

Words matter: they create our reality, and can also distort it. By being concise and precise, your writing becomes more accessible, unambiguous, and compelling.