The essay proceeds from an unorthodox interpretation of Bacon's “Idols of the Market-place” to develop a general theory of synonymy. This popular concept is one of the fundamental ills in our thinking (and, therefore, speech and writing). The essay suggests that we abolish the notion of synonymy in praxis.

It is proposed that outlining be used to increase the efficiency of restructuring a longer document or developing a composite test from several sources. A five-step procedure to effect such a `reverse engineering' of documents is detailed.

The author proposes an encompassing concept of clarity, a ubiquitous, yet undefined, concept in technical writing and editing. Clarity, a function of the target audience is analyzed according to its seven components: brevity, accuracy, completeness order, emphasis, consistency, and objectivity.