So it’s Friday the 13th.
Now, I am not, in any way, superstitious, but I thought it might be fun to use this “holiday,” as it were, to address some copywriting superstitions.
According to Merriam-Webster.com, the word superstition means, “a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation.”
Hmm. Great lead in because I always teach my coaching clients that great copywriting is not magic — but it is magical.
What I mean by that is that great copywriting doesn’t happen by accident. It does, however, differ from mediocre or bad copywriting in that it stirs something in the reader. Maybe that “something” is buying your product or maybe it’s thinking of your company in a new way or maybe it’s appreciating the value your services bring to the world. Whatever it is, great copywriting has an impact and that’s what makes it magical.
Now let’s get onto the superstitions. Okay, confession time. These aren’t really superstitions, they’re old, passé writing rules that you can let go of right now no matter what Mrs. English Teacher said or says. At least in the real world, when you’re not writing for a letter grade. Books have been written about new grammar rules and there are similar lists posted on dozens of other writing sites. I’m calling attention to the ones that I let go of a long time ago. And you’ll see evidence of it in my writing on client sites like the North Market and on my blog.
1. Never start a sentence with “and” or “but.”
2. Never end a sentence with a preposition like “to.”
3. Never use contractions.
4. Always write complete sentences and paragraphs.
5. Always put two spaces after a period.
The point of letting go of these antiquated rules is to get you to loosen up and write conversationally. All that formality is not only unnecessary; it clutters the core idea or message. And that, after all, is what your readers want to read.
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