Welcome to the Writers blog
Here’s where we get to write to our own brief. Where we cast a critical, humorous or observant eye over what’s going on in our world – and the wider world around us.
All copywriting-related, you understand.
About us – is it really worth saying?
One of the golden rules for any kind of writing is asking yourself whether what you want to say is what anyone really wants to hear. A good copywriter has to ask this question continuously of his or her own writing – and of what clients all too often seem determined to bore their audiences with…
And the award for the best writing guidelines goes to…..
We often receive ‘tone of voice’ or editorial guidelines to follow when writing for large organisations. Generally they don’t tell us anything new or different about writing. But at least they afford us a defence for writing clearly and concisely, and for removing the worst cases of jargon. (more…)
Lost in translation…
These days most airports and city streets looks pretty much the same thanks to our multinational landscape. Boringly bright fast food chains, long lines for lattes at Starbucks, pan-piping buskers… So it’s refreshing to see the English language is still being mangled magnificently in other countries, as these gems illustrate:
In a Dry Cleaners in Bangkok:
DROP YOUR TROUSERS HERE FOR THE BEST RESULTS!
On the menu in a Swiss Restaurant:
OUR WINES LEAVE YOU NOTHING TO HOPE FOR.
In a Yugoslavian Hotel:
THE FLATTENING OF UNDERWEAR WITH PLEASURE, IS THE JOB OF THE CHAMBERMAID.
In a German Campsite:
IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN ON OUR BLACK FOREST CAMPING SITE, THAT PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT SEX, FOR INSTANCE, MEN AND WOMEN, LIVE TOGETHER IN ONE TENT, UNLESS THEY ARE MARRIED WITH EACH OTHER FOR THIS PURPOSE.
But wait, there’s more! Pop over to check out a full list from fellow wordsmiths at IWriteCopy4U.
Have you seen any examples in your travels?
What’s outside your window?
How daydreaming can help the creative process…
It often pays to get your head away from the page, particularly when it comes to conceptual work, or ideas jobs like brand naming, straplines and taglines. You might not have the privilege of a rolling landscape or an eclectic metropolitan pastiche outside your window, but simply sitting back for a moment and letting your mind wander – or just keeping your thoughts ticking over while you pop out for a sandwich – can open up avenues of thought that just won’t come otherwise.
Yes. But what do you do?
Without fail, week after week, we will receive client copy to work with that goes on at length about quality, innovation, value, customer focus and all the other abstract clichés of modern corporate speak. It may go on for paragraphs at a time, sometimes even pages, so after a while you just scream out “Yes, but what do you do?”