Checking your work for errors is a tricky business. And that’s because you’re brain is fiendishly clever and will ‘make good’ the word even if it’s written incorrectly. I’m sure you’re familiar with the paragraph below where the first and last letters of the word are correct but the rest of the letters are muddled. And you can still read...
You know one of my fave artists is Jayson Lilley? And you know how much I love getting free stuff? Check out the below which have just arrived in the studio, from the aforemetioed Mr Lilley, in exchange for some work work I did for him. (I got the better deal.) This is proper old school. Like when people used to...
As a copywriter you often get to try out the product or service you’re writing about. And this is a good thing because it means you can experience the product or service in the same way a customer does, which makes it a helluva lot easier to write about. [caption id="attachment_1698" align="alignleft" width="180" caption="Battersea Power Station - Red - Jayson Lilley"][/caption] It...
So you’re having a house built. It’s a superb design. A grand design in fact. And yes. It is the same house from yesterday. But this time the walls have gone up, the windows have gone in and the roof has gone on. And it’s looking mighty fine. But wait. What’s this? There’s no foundation? No problem, you say. We’ll put...
So you’re having a house built. It’s a superb design. A grand design in fact. The builders are dedicated and conscientious and they’re on site on time every day. The materials are superb, the craftsmanship is second-to-none and the whole build is going well. There are some great features including a spa bath, massive walk-in wardrobes, and a huge kitchen that’s...
I was at a networking meeting the other day when someone declared that blog posts should always be infotaining. i.e. informative and entertaining. Well, quite. It got me thinking about portmanteaus: those words that are a blend of two other words. Or to be more precise they’re the beginning of one word joined to the end of another. Some are rotten. Like...
In honour of English Language Day last week I tweeted an old blog post about Anglo Saxon words. On Twitter @CiaranNorris replied “because Anglo Saxon words are ****ing great.” (Ciaran’s asterisks.) Indeed. It’s not cool to swear though, right? Or is it? Once frowned upon as showing lack of intelligence it now seems perfectly acceptable to cuss. Stephen Fry, the cunning linguist says...
You may recall, a couple of months ago, I wrote a blog post about how I was going to call everyone I was following on Twitter. Yes, I know. Crazy. And yet, I have to say, so far it’s been absolutely brilliant. I’ve swapped ideas, learnt new things, planned a few joint projects and really got to know the people behind...
In the paper the other week some jobsworth from the council described a new parking regulation which would be ‘like marmite’. He then went on to explain that local residents would either love it or hate it. Which got me thinking. How many other advertising slogans have become part of the vernacular? Which awesomely brilliant straplines do we now say every day? Here are...
Standing in a queue at the Nationwide Building Society this week, I picked up this little leaflet. (Note to Nationwide: 9.30am, 7 people in the line and only one teller and a trainee serving. Please address this before my next visit. Ta.) Anyway, because I had nothing better to do, I started reading about Nationwide’s latest TV ad campaign which...
