At Axios, we aspire to what we call “elegant efficiency.” When we design art for our website, newsletters and marketing materials, we obsess about one thing: What’s the cleanest, sharpest, most pleasing way to display it?

In elementary school, we learned: “Who—doing—what.” That simple formula always yields a riveting construction.

A good rule of thumb is if you wouldn’t say it at a bar or the beach, kill it. These limp or nerd words come in many forms.

Don’t say “price point” if you mean “price.” Don’t say “core competency” if you mean “skill.” Smart, taut writing is linear, not twisty: Subject. Verb. Object.

Be monk-like in your discipline with words and Zen-like in the inner joy of saying more with less. This is not natural or easy but can be learned with practice. • Imagine all the time you will save others—and yourself—for more meaningful activities. This should be your North Star. • The most useful communication is often silence, grasshopper.

What we’re hearing • Between the lines • The backstory • Catch up quick • Zoom in • Zoom out

The big picture • What’s next • What we’re watching

We basically stole what in journalism is called the “nut graf,” the line or paragraph you sometimes stumble upon that tells you why you’re reading the damn story to begin with. (At the big papers where we used to work, the nut graf typically fell in the fourth paragraph or lower for reasons we still find hard to comprehend.) We sharpened the idea

Axioms are like street signs: They tell you where you are and where you are going. • We make the