I stumbled with interest upon this article, which I hope is more evidence of a backlash against jargon and management-speak. Apparently, the chairman of the Local Government Association, Sir Simon Milton, is encouraging all employees to avoid “non-words” such as those on this list.
The offending words include: incentivising, coterminous, subsidiarity and synergies. It’s good to [...]
This recent article from the Guardian suggests that journalists should learn lessons from bloggers, and adapt.
While I agree with the author’s assertion that journalists should be less suspicious of bloggers and their work, I don’t agree that "there is no perfect example of journalists and bloggers working in harmony". Surely bloggers and journalists are [...]
Your copy might be correct, but is it boring?
It’s easy to get obsessed with marketing principles when writing copy - there are lots of rules to follow, and all kinds of advice to cloud your thinking. So it’s easy to forget that you also need to be interesting.
It’s worth re-reading your copy to make sure [...]
This isn’t really a catastrophe; the alliterative headline was irresistible.
Corporate communication is a difficult thing to get right. There are endless possible ways to say something and invariably many people choose the wrong way.
I’d like to show you a couple of examples that I noticed recently, and explain why they could be better. The following [...]
I’m going to be posting a series of copywriting tips that should help anyone who writes copy. These are simple tips that aim to make your copy more readable, more persuasive and more effective at selling. I’ll publish one a week, so check back regularly for more free advice in the coming weeks, or plug [...]
Brighton is a great place to work, especially if you’re a freelancer or in any way connected to the geek community. There are lots of regular networking groups and loads of opportunities to get involved with interesting projects.
One of these networking groups is the Farm. Aimed at connecting and supporting freelancers and small businesses, the [...]
Will McInnes and a commenter (Jonathan Hopkins) on his blog have got me thinking. Will’s post was about the future of advertising, and how advertising might best evolve in our digitised world. Jonathan suggests that businesses might do better to focus less on themselves and their products and instead try to help people.
Jonathan suggests that [...]
While I hold writing and the persuasive power of words in high regard, it is worth remembering that the words that represent your business are not the only things you need to be concerned about.
A recent commenter on this blog (Jon McCulloch ) mentioned that copy is not the only important factor in determining [...]
I’ve been reading Maria Veloso’s excellent Web Copy That Sells. Much of her advice is in line with standard copywriting principles, but Maria also strays into Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) in her quest to write copy that sells.
Maria discusses embedded commands, presuppositions, linguistic binds and reframing as methods for writing irresistible copy. All of these techniques, [...]