Discipline 06 · Chart Notes
Examples you can trace, not copy
Chart notes show structure in the margin — where the verb lands, how the second sentence earns the first, why a paragraph ends when it does. Your writers compose fresh lines inside the frame.
What each chart note contains
- Source draft
- A real paragraph from your archive, anonymised where needed, printed at readable size.
- Margin arrows
- Hand-drawn marks linking subject to verb, verb to consequence, consequence to next paragraph.
- Counter-example
- One paragraph that fails the same test, with a single sentence explaining the failure mode.
- Practice prompt
- A brief for your writer to attempt inside the frame — due date optional, mooring reference required.
Chart collation · pale table · side-by-side read
Chart note questions
How many chart notes arrive in a set?
Can we use our own drafts as source material?
Are chart notes confidential?
Common situations
Teams often arrive after a rebrand that never reached sales decks. Others arrive before a launch when product and marketing still use different vocabularies. Some need governance after a merger left two heading documents in circulation. We have moored engagements for each pattern — the moorings page names shapes; this page answers how they feel in practice.
We do not ask "do you guarantee results?" because that framing assumes marketing is a vending machine. We ask what must be true in language for your teams to stop contradicting each other in market. That question usually surfaces the real brief.
The FAQ above covers delivery, confidentiality, and source material. If you are comparing us to media agencies, note that we sit upstream: we prepare language and systems; they buy reach. If you are comparing us to brand consultancies that deliver slide decks only, note that we deliver living documents and soundings, not a PDF that yellows on a shelf. If you are comparing us to freelance copywriters, note that we moor engagements with calendars and governance, not one-off files.
If an answer here contradicts your mooring letter, the letter prevails. Chart notes refresh when mooring shapes change; see legal pages for site-wide last updated dates.
Questions about soundings, mooring length, or APAC regional review appear in the accordion above; write if your case blends categories.
We answer chart notes by mail within two working days when a question requires more than the accordion provides.
Bring a sample of conflicting copy to the first call; it speeds the conversation.
PDF delivery and writer workflow
Chart notes leave the studio as password-protected PDF only. We send the password in a separate mail thread so a single compromised inbox does not expose both file and key. Each set contains five notes — one per major channel named in your mooring — bundled as one document with a table of contents on page one. Fonts are embedded; margins are wide enough to print at A4 without losing the hand-drawn arrows. We do not deliver editable source files; the fixed format prevents accidental alteration of the structural marks.
Your writer workflow should treat each chart note as a tracing exercise, not a template. Assign one note per writer per week. The writer reads the source draft, studies the margin arrows linking subject to verb and verb to consequence, then attempts the practice prompt on a fresh page without looking at the source phrasing. The mooring reference number must appear on the attempt. Submit completed prompts to your internal editor first; only disputed attempts come back to us for a follow-up sounding. Most teams find that three rounds of prompt practice reduce drift marks by half before the next formal sounding date.