Blog Warning: This post contains starred expletives, as well as a mention of pet excrement.

Were you a badge or button collector? Did you cover bags or jackets in those little badges adorned with peace symbols, spiky cannabis leaves or pithy save-the-world slogans? Did you have a favourite badge? One that really summed you up?

As a teenager I never collected badges. They just weren’t that popular. But there was one button that I bought in my late-twenties, that even if I had bought when I was 16, I wouldn’t really have appreciated until later.

This badge made wearable the clichéd truism that still lies behind so many of the questions I ask: Assumption is the mother of all f*** ups.

And it really is.

Assumption might have a few co-parents – like Laziness, Stupidity or Haste – but at the end of the day Assumption is usually at the very least the stork where f*** ups are concerned.

The importance of never assuming when it comes to copywriting was brought home to me again this week when I was doing some keyword research and copywriting for a physiotherapy products website.

The product was freeze spray –an  instant cooling spray for minor injuries.

I guessed at a couple of the possible keywords and phrases that people might use to find this product, then used some software to further research the options. I’d assumed what other types of products might come into the mix – anti-freeze spray for example. But I had not reckoned on one: Poop Freeze.

You type ‘freeze spray’ into Google and Poop Freeze is the third product on the list. And, yes, it does what the product name says: freezes poop. Specifically pet poop, although I’m sure you could use it on other varieties. And there is more than one such product on the market, although the others have less to-the-point names.

Now, I realise that I was probably unaware of this product, firstly, because I don’t own a pooping pet, and secondly, because I’ve always played a great deal of sport where freeze spray was a common pitch-side accessory. But I was unaware of it. Couldn’t even have dreamed of it.

To be honest, at the end of the day it didn’t make much difference to the words I included in my product description, but it did remind me about assumptions and how wrong they can be. And potentially how wrong we can be when ignore them in marketing communications or copywriting.

Never assume until you’ve done the research

Your personal frame of reference is never going to be big enough. You’re always going to be biased when you write or act, and you just don’t know who or what you’re competing with or what else it out there.  But you can enlarge the frame as a start.

When you’re writing an article, doing research for keywords, picking a company name, a domain name or planning a marketing campaign – research, research, research. This might seem pretty obvious, but it’s often ignored, as in the case of a public health cycling campaign having the same acronym as the web address for an established porn website.

But doing your own reading and asking the questions you come up with is only going to inform your own assumption.

Our set of assumptions is one of the most personal things we own, and people will always be reading your words with their own assumptions in place.  Being aware of your own assumptions is not enough, you need to research and be aware of others’ assumptions too. You don’t know what comes into someone else’s head when they hear ‘freeze spray’.

Everybody makes assumptions – don’t ignore them

There are constant reminders to writers not to assume their reader knows something – the meaning of an acronym, for example.  And then there are reminders to write for your reader.  This is all excellent advice. But it is only one side of the warning. You don’t just have to write for your reader, you also have to write for your reader’s assumptions. And to do that you need to have a vague idea of what they are.

The obvious place to start when questioning our own assumptions is the Internet. But the best place to understand other people’s is from them directly. Not just by  ’stepping into their shoes’ though, because while you’re stepping into them, you’re usually taking your assumptions with you.

Twenty seconds of playing the word association game provides excellent insight on what other people’s assumptions are about a word or phrase.

Speak to friends, colleagues and strangers, your crew on Twitter or Facebook. Ask for their assumptions, and compare them to your own. Is there something crucial you’ve missed? Could your carefully crafted tagline have a negative association you couldn’t even have imagined on an hallucinogenic trip? Could your company name be putting people off? Is your main benefit actually a turn-off?

Obviously we don’t always have the time to research assumptions in depth, or with our exact target audience. Awareness is a good start though. And with social networks, friends, neighbours or even friendly strangers we have easy access to one or two more assumptions than just our own.

Spending a bit of time on this is important, because it does matter what other people think. And if you’re lucky, an assumption’s only going to lead to a misnunderstanding and not to a total f*** up.

Ever made an assumption that got you into a big pile of poop?

Ever been unable to find the most basic specifications for a product you’ve wanted to buy online? Or couldn’t find the contact info you needed for a specific department? Or the direct debit form they kept referring to but wasn’t attached to the ?!@&$%!! renewal form?

How did it make you feel about the business or organisation involved?

I’m no mind reader, but I’d bet a lot of money on it that ‘warm and fuzzy’ is not the phrase you’re thinking of right now. Probably something more along the lines of ‘incompetent’ or ‘unprofessional’?

So you already appreciate why well-written, user-friendly and useful information is an asset for your business.  I’m not talking about your advertisements or your glossy brochure, or the company blog you use to promote yourself online. I’m talking about the rest of the information that your customers or clients receive or use  - all the ‘admin info’. Things like your membership forms, your product details or technical specs, your support documents, your service information, FAQs, price lists or your booking confirmation emails.

All that ‘unglamorous’ information without which sales and marketing copy is largely a waste of time.

Good information as a marketing tool

Good written information is itself a marketing tool. It’s a foundation for good customer service, it builds customer loyalty and increases conversion.

Why? Because good information does not irritate people, inconvenience them or make them go somewhere else to find an answer.

Good information shows your customers that you’re making an effort to save and respect them by valuing their time and making the info they need concise and easy to use.  It also adds to your credibility, and it reduces the number of customer queries you’ll need to deal with.

So, before you throw huge amounts of money at expensive marketing plans and strategies, assess the information that you make available to your customers. Is it good enough to convert and keep the customers that are alerted to your business because of advertising or social media campaigns?

Or would some of your marketing budget be better spent reassessing and polishing your essential written information?

What is good information?

Good written information:

• Answers questions
• Is concise, clear, accurate, and easy to understand
• Is easy to find, easy to use, and easy to act on

The great thing is, you probably already have all the information your customers or client need. All you need to do is structure it, edit it and fine-tune it to make it into a marketing asset.

Where do you start to make your written information better?

The best place to start is by trying to see your information from your customer’s perspective.  Write down what a customer or client needs to do, or what you would like them to do, with each piece of written information you provide. Write it out step-by-step.

For example, for a membership renewal letter, the customer will need to:

1. decide if they want to renew
2. know how much membership will cost
3. check the date they need to renew by
4. speak to someone if they have an individual query about their membership renewal
5. complete the renewal form
6. choose their payment option
7. make the payment (online, by cheque or direct debit)
8. post the renewal form and payment slip or cheque

Now give them the info they’ll need to complete each step. It sounds simple, and it is. But it’s surprising how easy it is to leave out key pieces of information if you just start writing without a checklist of what you need to include. It can leave basic questions unanswered and frustrating holes in your info.

Having a checklist that corresponds to how the reader will use the information will help you structure it clearly and keep to the point.

The same step-by-step checklist approach can be applied to anything, from web content to services information. Once you’ve written your information you can edit it and polish it in the knowledge that at the very least you’re giving your customers time-saving, useful information and answered any important questions they might have.

Elements that make well-written information better

Good information is well written and concise. But to make it valuable and a marketing asset it also needs to be well-structured and well laid out. It is the simple things that make the difference between well-written information that might never be read, and well-written, easy-to-use, easy-to-find information that’s an asset to your business.

Informative headings and sub-headings. Quirky might amuse you, but it probably won’t amuse a customer or client whose time is being wasted trying to find the right piece of info. Headings and sub-headings are sign-posts to the right info.

Numbering. On large documents with a lot of cross-referencing, using a numbered system of headings and sub-headings can be very helpful to the reader.

Page numbers on written documents. The ‘x of y’ pages format is exceptionally useful on documents that are likely to be printed out – even if they’re only two pages long.

Bookmarking pdfs. This helps people find what they’re looking for fast, as well as get a quick overview of what information is in the document.

An index and/or table of contents. Just because you whiz around your digital documents using the search function, don’t think everyone does. An index can save your reader a huge amount of time for any printed document, and a table of contents lets them scan and assess the whole document as well as navigate through it.

A summary or précis. Summaries save people time, and they let you give a distilled version of your information. Use them.

White space. As important online as off, having the correct amount of ‘breathing space’ around different text elements can be the deciding factor between a useful and a useless document, irrespective of how well it is written.

Legibility. It’s all useless information if you can’t read it. There are many elements that make text more or less legible, including font, text size and line spacing. Make sure you consider them, or that your web or graphic designer understands these important issues.

Visual information. Some information is easier to understand as a chart, illustration or diagram. Could you condense a page of info into a simple diagram, or a complicated step-by-step process into an illustrated user-friendly flow chart? How much easier would it make things for your client?

Good written business information doesn’t need to be complicated. It just needs to be concise and use common sense. Editing and proofreading always help, but it’s the little bit of forethought that makes your written information into an asset and an invaluable marketing tool.

What crucial business information do you notice is often missing or buried ?

The value of punctuation and proofreading

Printer cartridge label

Even leading brands get it wrong. Sometimes a missing hyphen can be amusing or go unnoticed, but a missing hyphen combined with bad design can result in your message saying exactly the opposite of what you want it to.

When I picked up the printer cartridge with the pictured label – “Blacker, more smear resistant text” – I reread the packaging three times. I was intrigued by why a printer company thought more stubborn text that smears more easily should appeal to me. And the degree of the text’s stubbornness apparently also came with a footnote – that’s how resistant it was (or wasn’t).

No matter how big, or small your business, even a simple five-word message can cause you problems. But it’s simple to avoid a similar situation in your own marketing and I’m sure that HP could’ve too.

• Get your designer and copywriter to co-operate. A green block on a black background tells me nothing about the product. The words are key – they need to be given the space to say what they need to, and if the space is not available then the words need to be rewritten so that they can say what they need to in the space available.
• Get someone to read your designed material for sense. Not yourself, the designer, the copywriter or your marketing manager. You all know what the message is meant to say. A potential customer makes an excellent proofreader for sense.
• Pay attention to punctuation. Those little dots and stripes really can make or break a message. This message might not have been totally saved, but it could’ve been thrown a lifebuoy in the form of a hyphen. A hyphen would’ve indicated that smear and resistant were a single concept. It would have shown the reader that smear was linked to the next word on the next line.  If you’re going to use compound adjectives, use hyphens in them to make meaning clearer and avoid a similar problem. (Compound adjectives are two or more words that you use in combination to describe something. You know it’s a compound adjective if, when you take away one of the words, the meaning changes i.e. resistant text or smear text is totally different to smear-resistant text.)

Never underestimate the saving power of punctuation and a good proofreader.

About to develop a website and wondering where to start? Avoid making a common but costly mistake.

A not-so-potential client recently gave me a sob story about investing a year and £50,000 in developing a new web-based system. He’d now run out of money, but needed instructions, FAQs and some content to convince people to sign up and use his services. Without this content he couldn’t launch the site. All he wanted was a few tens of thousands of words for a couple of hundred quid. He didn’t have the money to pay any more.

Sorry, but bad planning does not win my sympathy. Or my writing services. Even at current interest rates, he may as well have put his 50 grand in a savings account, because if we’re honest, a website without content is about as useful as condom vending machine in the Vatican.

A website is about communication. And although images can go a long way in communicating, chances are you’re also going to need written words, and quite a few of them. Yet every day thousands of people kick-start the design of a new website, willing to throw thousands of pounds at it, believing that written content is something to ‘fill the gaps’ at the end of the process.

It sounds a bit too farcical to be fact, but for businesses with small to medium-sized websites, that’s usually the way it goes. And it’s a helluva inefficient way of working for everyone: you, your web developer and your web designer. That’s why it’s crucial to either plan and write your own web content before you’ve even built a web page, or get a web copywriter involved at the beginning of the project.

Of course I’m biased, but I’d suggest you call a web copywriter before you even call the web developers.

What’s wrong with leaving the writing to the end?

It delays website launches.

A lot of website launches are delayed significantly, not because of web developers not working to schedule, but because the clients don’t provide the web content in time.

I know this from frustrating experiences as a web development project manager: a complex website built under stressful conditions to meet a tight deadline, and it can’t be launched because the pages are blank. Everybody loses – the web developer because they can’t get final payment until the site launches and you because your new investment is languishing under dust covers.

It creates unnecessary work all round.

If you don’t know exactly what content you want on your website then you’re going to have to guess. Why guess when you don’t need to? Why run the risk of creating a more complex website with more pages than you need? Or not enough pages.

A good web copywriter understands the principles of information architecture, website usability, content strategy and search engine optimisation. They can work with you or your web development team to map out what writing and graphics your site will need. If you’re revamping an existing website, some web copywriters also offer content auditing, to evaluate the web content you already have and help you plan your content for the new site.

Ideally you want your web copywriter to at least work with your web development team from the very beginning. This will save everybody time and make sure you’re all working towards the same goals for your website. It’s efficient too.

It results in mediocre content.

Leaving writing to the last minute forces web copywriters to compromise. When we’re called in to replace ‘lorum ipsum’ dummy text with something meaningful in a final website design, we often have no choice but to write content to fit design, rather than writing content to fit website visitors and marketing goals.

On an information website, design is a vehicle for information. It makes information better. How can you expect optimally functional web design if your designer doesn’t know what information they’re designing for? Designing without web content also has the potential to cause a clash between design style and writing style, resulting in wishy-washy branding.

So get your content written before the website designs are finalised, at least for the key web pages.

It diminishes the value of your investment.

Businesses spend money on website development. Usually quite a lot of money. When they’re considering quotes from web companies, clients often don’t register that those quotes rarely include content. And caught up in the excitement of a new website, any contingency in terms of time or money for paying someone to write your content or writing it yourself is forgotten. After all, how hard or expensive can filling blank spaces be?

Good website development does not come cheap, and it shouldn’t. But even though your business will benefit from having a beautifully designed and well-built site, all your website visitors are going to care about is if they find what they came looking for quickly and easily. They’ll see the pictures and they’ll scan the words. They’re going to be looking at those ‘blank spaces’.

If you budget for copywriting up front you won’t be caught short and left with a fantastically well-built website that is unable to serve a purpose.

So to sum up, and put a positive copywriterly spin on it…

Call your web copywriter early because:

1. You’ll improve your chances of launching your website on schedule
2. You’ll save everybody work
3. You’ll get better web content
4. You’ll get better value-for-money from your website.

Oh yes, and it’ll be less stressful for everyone.

Need help with your web content? Want to know why a web content audit could save you time and money in the long run? Get in touch.

Identifying your weed words

About two months ago I failed the communication component of a mock sports massage assessment. I did fine on the practical side, but not so fine on speaking to my client. Now for some people that might not be so important, but as someone who works with communications daily it felt like a total disaster. Especially when I thought I’d been pretty chatty and done OK.

My exam client was very honest in his appraisal. The treatment was fine, but my use of the word obviously was a problem. He stressed that what for me was obvious might not be for him. My use of the word had created a barrier. It had stopped him from asking questions and at the same time he’d felt patronised.

I felt as if someone had punched me in the stomach. Am I such an abysmal communicator? Had I really said obviously enough times for it to be such a problem? And then I realised that yes, I most probably had. I just had to listen to myself for a few minutes to realise that.

A single word had been responsible for total communication breakdown.

Obviously is an adverb, a part of speech that some writers condemn as being lazy and unnecessary if care is taken to write thoughtfully. I know that in my writing I have a tendency to overuse it. I consider it one of my weed words – words that I let crop up as I’m writing because I know I’ll go back and strip them out later. I let myself get away with them because they ‘help with the flow’.

But when I’m talking I don’t have the luxury of word weeding. I’d let a lazy writing habit become a damaging spoken tic. I’d used obviously without thought.

On reflection, obviously is just as irritating as the basically, like or I know that many of us use as fillers. And just like these words, I initally assumed that although obviously may be irritating, that my use of it was essentially meaningless. Why would someone get so upset by a filler?

Because it wasn’t meaningless.

I noted that when speaking I used obviously at the beginning of a sentence, as a linking word. When I first tried to understand why I did it, I concluded that it was to try to put people at ease; make them understand that I know that they know what I’m talking about. I used it to avoid being patronising.

Or so I thought.

But was there another reason I had used it? Because I was nervous and slightly unsure in an exam situation, had I used it – as stated in a comment on the blog post Obviously. It doesn’t go without saying – to convince my listener of the authenticity of what I was saying and accept it unquestioningly?

Letting my geeky side loose and getting slightly more technical, I discovered that obviously is classified as an adverb of certainty – in the same category as definitely, probably or clearly. And it’s best used in the middle of a sentence according to Swan’s Practical English Usage (e.g. The losing team were obviously unhappy.) I realised that by using it at the beginning of a sentence I’d tried to transform it into a ‘meaningless’ connecting adverb while still trying to hang on to its association with certainty.  Had I tried to be subconsciously cunning and failed? Could I give myself credit for that level of unintentional linguistic manipulation? Either way, it was lazy word usage and it had a very negative impact.  Luckily I  received constructive criticism to alert me to it.

So I’m chalking this event up as a helpful and educational failure. As a writer I know that a sentence can be undermined by a single word. I weigh my words carefully and I consider other options. And I’m now trying to word weed as I’m writing. I’m also trying to take equal care to listen to myself , to slow down and try to edit at least slightly before I speak in professional situations.  If you hear me stating a thoughtless obviously though, please call me on it.

This incident has reminded me the value of constructive criticism, the importance of self-evaluation, and that, as a communications professional, it is crucial to seek honest feedback on your work in all formats.

Anyone else have any examples of weed words that you think fuzzy or sabotage your communications? Or words that you think other writers or speakers use thoughtlessly or for a subconscious reason?

How to save yourself time and get the best work from your copywriter

Getting good writing involves giving. Apart from the money, if you give some thought to what you need before you even look for a copywriter, you’re likely to get more accurate quotes, better writing, better results and a project that runs to schedule. Here’s a list of the information your copywriter will appreciate:

1. Your project deadlines.

This sounds straight-forward, but when deciding on your ideal deadlines, don’t forget to factor in the time that you will need to review the writing. This can take longer than you think. Give yourself the time you need, and your copywriter the time to provide you with value-for-money.

2. The estimated length of the project.

Roughly the number of pages and the number of words per page. Or just an overall word count. This is not the easiest thing to work out, but if you consider it carefully at the beginning then you’re likely to get more accurate quotes from your copywriter.

If you’re looking for copywriting for your website, then ideally you want a minimum of 300 words per page.

3. A brief overview of what your business does and your key products and services.

To be able to write about your business your copywriter will need to understand it first. Anything from a business plan for a start-up to your brochure or annual report can be useful. But ideally we’d like it from you in your own words as a starting point.

4. Your business goals

Where do you want the business to be six months or two years from now? Are you shifting your marketing and sales strategies to get there?

5. The target audience for your communication.

Who is ideally going to be reading and taking action because what your copywriter produces? If you’re a B2B what types of companies do you sell to? Where are they? Who within those companies is going to be reading your website, brochure or letter? Are they the people making the decisions?

If your information is for individuals: What age group? Where do they live? What type of people are they? Active, bird-lovers, executives?

6. Five or six adjectives that you would like people to associate with your business.

For example, do you want to thought of as avant-garde, professional, fun, exciting or extravagant? This can be difficult to answer, but it is very useful in giving your writer an understanding of what to say and how to say it

7. Your unique selling point.

What sets you apart from your competitors? Why should I pick your product or service?

8. The benefits of using your products/services

A big part of any copywriter’s job is to identify all the benefits of your products or services, and present them in a way that will ‘speak’ to the target audience. But they need to know from you what the main benefits are that you have identified.

9. The main messages that you want to convey or the main action that you want your reader to take.

Why have you drafted in a copywriter? What is the most important message that you want people to get from the writing? What do you want them to do after they’ve read the information? Place an order? Make an appointment? Set up an account? Register for a demonstration?

10. Customer guarantees, special offers or discounts that you wish to include.

Your copywriter can help you phrase these as well as making them a key part of your message. Make sure they’re aware of them from the start of the project.

11. Any other information that you’d like to include – i.e. testimonials from your customers, business awards, press coverage, market research, case studies.

All very useful information that a copywriter can use to bolster your credibility and weave into the writing. Don’t just provide it at the end of the project. A skilful copywriter can put it to good use.

12. The writing style and tone

This is another hard one, but very important. The easiest way to identify a style and tone for your business is to find something similar to what you want and provide an example. You might want something slightly different to the example, but it’s a great starting point.  Examples of what you definitely do not want are also helpful.

Your copywriter will be able to guide you on this too, but definitely start thinking about it early. And always remember that your writing is for your readers, not for yourself: a style you like might not suit them.

Style describes the form of the writing and the type of vocabulary, i.e. formal, informal or academic, whereas tone refers to the attitude you want to convey, i.e. enthusiastic or serious, for example. They are quite closely interlinked though, so don’t worry about that too much.

13. Brand and/or style guidelines

If you have any these need to be provided at the start of any writing project.

14. Existing copywriting

Adverts, brochures or web content that you’ve previously had done or done yourself. Even better if you can give an idea of which worked and which didn’t. Any existing writing for your project (previous or draft versions) or sources of information on which you want the project to be based

Again, gather them together even before you’ve found your writer. That way it makes your part of meeting the agreed deadline that much easier when the project starts.

15. Your  main competitors.

Who are they? What are their website addresses? Do you like how they’ve done certain things? If your copywriter knows who they are then they can be sure to make you different

Copywriters are human too… we like working with organised people who have a good idea of what they want. And you can’t help but do your very best work for people you like.

This is not a ‘how to twitter’ post, because I’m still learning and there are so many out there already. It’s just a few personal observations from a former Twitter sceptic. You might find them useful if you’ve been told ‘you should be on Twitter’, but aren’t quite sure why.

I’ve never been one for using my status update on Facebook much, so the thought of using Twitter never appealed to me. It seemed a little pointless. But about two months ago I decided that it was time to give it a fair shot: to try it out, consistently, for at least 100 tweets.

Almost a century and a half of tweets later (a day in the lives of some twitterers,  almost two months in my world), I’ve definitely learnt a great deal.

1. Local twitterings for local connections. For me, the best thing about Twitter is how it helps you make local connections. Yes, it’s great to be able to follow people on the other side of the world. But for someone working from home the highlight has been the local connections you can make. It’s networking without the scary face-to-face bit.
2. Just start. Don’t get hung-up on the etiquette or the ‘best approach’. Just make a start and you’ll pick it up as you go along. You’ll soon figure out if what you’re saying is getting you followers or getting you unfollowed. I started with a simple guide to Twitter and that was enough.
3. You get more from giving. Taking time to chat with other people is satisfying and enriching. And it needn’t take up all of your time either. It can be random, spontaneous and – in less than 140 characters – speedy, even when typing with only one finger.
4. Tweets are a great way of ‘sorting’ information. You quickly realise who the people are that post the type of resources you’re interested in reading. It’s almost like having access to a giant human sieve for the Internet. You can follow people with similar interests, in similar professions, or with no justification other than that you like what they say.
5. It doesn’t have to be a numbers game. You’re not going to get thousands of followers overnight, unless you start following thousands of people yourself.  But a few dozen followers is all you need to have good conversations and be pointed towards some fabulous resources.

And the cons?

“… a persistent underlying disturbance to conscious thought …classified largely by its effects on speech and writing. Affected persons may show pressure of speech (speaking incessantly and quickly), derailment or flight of ideas (switching topic mid-sentence inappropriately)…”

On first reading this I thought it was quite an accurate description of Twitter. But it is the wikipedia entry for ‘thought disorder’ – a common symptom of being psychotic. (No, I’m not going to elaborate on why I was on the page to start with!)

At first glance Twitter seemed to be another potential and serious hazard to the daily endeavour of ordering my thoughts.  And for the first few days it was.

Twitter definitely has the potential to disorder and distract. But with a little bit of discipline and using options to list, group and filter you can control your Twitter quite well and extract from it what you want. There are a multitude of tools that help you do this. Looking into them all could in itself eat up a few days, so I started with just one – Tweetdeck.

@pricklychicken

If you don’t work in publishing or communications then you’re forgiven for not knowing the difference between ‘proofreading’ and ‘editing’.  Why should you. But here’s a tip if you’re planning on producing a really good information document: before you start make sure you understand the difference between them.

Confusing proofreading with editing is not just a common error, it’s a common and expensive error.

If you’re after a top-quality document as your result you need to do both – edit and proofread. And you need to understand why so that you can keep your costs down.

The production cycle

If you’re creating a designed document (whether for print or simply as an electronic PDF) the sequence should go something like this: Write – Edit – Design – Proofread.

Unfortunately, all too often the person producing the document thinks they have such a good writer (or are themselves such a good writer) that skipping ‘Edit’ will save them time and money.

It won’t! And I’m not saying this because I’m a writer/editor/proofreader who is trying to convince you to employ me.

I’m saying this because chances are that if you skip out ‘Edit’ you’re going to more than double your costs on the ‘Design’ and ‘Proofread’ stages.

Unless your designer and proofreader have had the misfortune of giving you a fixed quote, you’re going to pay them a whole lot more than you planned on, or you’re going to end up with a disgruntled pair who will never want to work with you again.

And chances are excellent you’ll also end up with a less-than-perfect document.

When to edit (in an ideal world)

ALWAYS.

To paraphase The Business Dictionary, the job of an editor is:

• Picking up and removing factual, grammatical and typographical errors;
• Checking that what has been written is as clear as possible;
• Deleting any information that has been unnecessarily repeated or is not suitable for the target audience;
• Making sure that the sequence of information is correct and the document reads smoothly and logically.

You might choose to outsource your editing, or you might do it in house because you don’t have the resources. But whichever option you choose, the most important thing is:

• The person editing the document needs to be a different person to the writer. Why? Because the writer knows what they want to say. They also have extensive background knowledge that informs how they read what they’ve written. Ideally you need a ‘blank mind’ to read and make sense of the information. (No, I’m not advocating a ‘thick’ editor, but someone outside of the writer’s ‘jargon circle’ or is a good match to your target audience is a good place to start.)

And why bother with proofreading?

A proofreader is there for a final check of the document once it’s been sent to the designer and been laid out. The proofreader’s job is:

• To do a final check for spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors.
• To check the formatting is consistent: that the font sizes are correct, the bullets all indented equally, and the headlines are the correct size.

The proofreader is there in case the editor missed something, which will inevitably happen, and to ‘catch’ the errors that creep in when the text is taken from its original format into the design program. There is no other way of checking this except manually.

If, however, there are obscurely complex sentences, inaccurate and duplicated information and ‘bits missing’, the proofreader is going to do one of two things:

1. Ignore the chaos and only sweat the small stuff, since they were employed to proofread the document, not edit it.
2. Make the necessary suggestions, point out the duplications, reorder the information and add in missing text, as well as checking for typos, formatting, etc.

Option 2 is what inevitably happens, because the ‘curse’ of being a proofreader is a flaming obsession with good communications.

And option 2 is where it gets expensive. Because now your proofs need to go back to the designer, who needs to make the changes, then back to the proofreader again. And this cycle might need to repeat itself a few times before you get a final proofread document.  And if they’ve quoted you a fixed cost on your project, chances are they’re going to be fed up at this point and not do the best job they’re capable of.

So, if you take the time to edit before your document goes for design you’re saving the cost of two people’s extra time, and potentially also their sanity.

Of course you might get a proofreader who goes with option 1 and does what they were asked to – proofread. But you’re going to end up with a well-spelt, grammatically correct but most definitely a sub-standard document. In which case, why bother with a proofreader at all?

If I only have the resources for either an editor or a proofreader?

If you can’t afford to pay someone to do both tasks then I would suggest that you get someone to edit rather than proofread. You can always get someone to read through the document to make sure all the information has been imported and is in the right order.

Personally I think it is preferable to have a factually correct, coherent document with a few spelling errors and grammatical inconsistencies rather than illogical, duplicated information that is difficult to read but well spelt.

And if you’re bothering to produce something at all, why bother to produce something half-arsed that will damage your credibility?

And the final (perhaps slightly bitter) word

Whichever you decide, now that you know the difference between the two, don’t try and ‘sneak’ a proofreader an editing job. They will notice. And they will not be appreciative.

Practice and advice: one you generally need and the other you usually get without asking for it and in over-abundance. But this post is not about doing or getting anything, it’s about spelling.

When do you practise with an ‘s’ and when do you practice with a ‘c’? What’s the difference between advise and advice? License or licence?  It’s always been a bit of an occupational hazard for me.

The grammatical answer is: ‘c’ is for when it’s a noun and ‘s’ when it’s a verb. Sounds easy to remember, but I still constantly forget and have to reach for the dictionary – or click for it rather these days.

But I now have a quicker solution – I just throw a cat at it. If the cat fits, then I know I need the ‘c-for-cat’ version of the word. If the cat doesn’t then I stick with ‘s’.

So… He likes to practis/ce his Spanish in the shower. Substitute ‘practis/ce’ with ‘cat’ and I have a nonsensical sentence: He likes to cat his Spanish in the shower. That makes practise a verb, and I’ll stick an ‘s’ in it.

But if I throw ‘cat’ into He never misses the cheerleading practis/ce, I get the perfectly sound sentence: He never misses the cheerleading cat. Sure, it might not be plausible, but it could be a real sentence if cats were cheerleaders.

You’ll get plenty of practic/se if you join our choir. = You’ll get plenty of cats if you join our choir. ‘C’  it is.

I only listen to expert advic/se. = I only listen to expert cats. That’s a green light for ‘advice’ then. (OK, admittedly you need more than one cat to make this one work!)

He lost his driving licence/se = He lost his driving cat. Thumbs up for a ‘c’!

And of course, if the word has an –ing or an –ed on the end you know straightaway it’s not going to work tagged onto a cat, it must be a verb, and so it’s an ‘s’ you’re after.

E.g. I use my blog so that I keep practising my writing!

Hope you’ll find the cats useful.

I was very excited to be eating a packet of crisps that “Contains Real Ingredients” yesterday. Personally, I prefer my crisps with real ingredients as opposed to… what? Unreal ingredients? Fake ingredients? Imitation ingredients? Those ultra-low-calorific virtual ingredients?

‘Natural’ ingredients I can understand. ‘Wholesome’ ingredients… fine. ‘Chemical-free’ ingredients – hey, I’m paying double, but I know what my money’s getting me.

But I’m eating real crisps (they’re going to my oh-so-real thighs, after all), so surely they must be made from real ingredients. Even if they’re chemically enhanced and test-tube grown they’re the real ingredients that go into these crisps.

You telling me that they’re real is really not selling them to me.  You’re wasting valuable crisp-packet frontage that could tell me something truly amazing about your product. Not the one single fact that is shared by every single product in the whole supermarket!

Real potatoes are a selling point. Real ingredients are not.

So next time you’re thinking how to market your product don’t just write words to fill the space. Each word is important.

Keep it real for those of us who’re going to read the things.

Need help with a word? Contact Core Copywriting.