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This month’s word is:
temerarious (tem-uh-rair-ee-uhs), adjective.
It means recklessly daring or rash.
Example:
Simon was renowned for his rather temerarious approach to dating.
Or:
Major Jones reprimanded the temerarious priest and warned him against repeating his outburst.

It’s been a busy summer at Wordsworks Towers. We’ve been working on a graduate recruitment brochure for one of the largest law firms in the world, some branding and messaging for a major global advisory firm, a prospectus for a leading further education college and an interactive learning tool for a regional development agency.We’ve also been joined by a new full-time copywriter, Catherine, which brings our numbers up to four. Catherine is a former freelance copywriter and has spent the last four months helping the NUS get the content of its new website up to scratch.

So with more mouths to feed, don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any projects on the go that need copywriting support.

One of the key purposes of good business writing is to write in a way that reinforces your brand. It’s also one of the main areas where much business writing often fails.If your brand is about dynamism, energy and modern thinking, your writing needs to support that. So that means using appropriate language, tone and structure.

We were recently working on a recruitment brochure for a major professional services firm. Being a recruitment brochure, the firm wanted to suggest energy, innovation, friendliness and approachability. But one of the main contributors insisted on using words like hence, thus and amongst. Fine words in themselves, but ones that jarred with the firm’s branding message.

Words like hence, thus, amongst and whilst, have a whiff of old-fashioned formality, of stuffiness and of, well, naffness. It’s one of the reasons why most newspapers rarely use them, preferring while to whilst, among to amongst, and just avoiding hence and thus altogether.

You should do the same. Unless, of course, you’re deliberately looking to suggest old-fashioned fustiness and 1950s propriety. In which case, good luck.