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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.

They say three’s company (don’t they? It might be two, but for our sakes, let’s say three), and when it comes to fluid, high impact writing, three is certainly the magic number.

The rule of three is simple. It says that when you’re describing something - the features of a new service or the benefits of a new product - a list of three characteristics is always the most effective.

Two isn’t quite enough, and leaves readers thinking, is that it? While four is too many, and sounds ungainly, if not desperate. Three, in contrast, is powerfully modest.

Something that’s described as innovative, cost effective and simple to use, sounds more alluring than something which is just innovative and cost effective, and less desperate than something which is innovative, cost effective, simple to use and reliable.

Three strikes the right balance of comprehensiveness, clarity and conciseness. And as a result, the sentence sounds stronger, more memorable and far more hard-hitting. (Do you see what we did there?)

This month’s word was chosen purely because we love its feel of old fashioned, fusty bookishness:

Betwixt (adverb or proposition) - meaning ‘between’

“Betwixt” and “between” have similar origins: they both come from a combination of the prefix ‘be-’ and an Old English root meaning ‘two’. Both words appeared before the 12th century, but the use of betwixt dropped off considerably toward the end of the 1600s.

It survived in the phrase “betwixt and between” (neither one thing nor the other), but nowadays betwixt is uncommon. It’s still widely understood, though, and this writer, for one, will be making a conscious effort to reintroduce it into common parlance. Until next month’s word, at least.

We came across this lovely story recently of an RAF pilot fighting the authorities for his right to wear a moustache.

It got us thinking what an odd word moustache is, so we looked it up to save you losing any sleep over its peculiarity.

Apparently, the English word moustache comes from the Middle French moustache, which in turn derives from the Old Italian mustaccio. This comes from Middle Greek moustaki, which is a diminutive of the Greek mystak or mystax, which means upper lip. Phew. By the time you’ve read that, you could almost have grown one.

Some of the most effective tools for clearer business writing are so obvious we tend to overlook them. Take bullet points, the unsung heroes of the print world.

Bullets work because they:

• Add structure and organization to your writing
• Provide multiple entry points in to the text
• Help simplify information
• Emphasise key points
• Improve comprehension

How to use bullets:

• Begin with a header/title followed by a colon (as above)
• Make sure that text and bullets are properly aligned
• Try to apply some sort of logical order, perhaps based on the alphabet, chronology or priority.

But watch out for these common bullet mistakes:

* Having too many of them: bullets should be used for emphasis, but if you emphasise too much, the emphasis is lost.

* Using different colours or fonts: the strongest colour is always black. Simplicity makes for clarity.

* Avoid non-parallel construction: bullet points still need to make grammatical sense and fit into the context of the paragraph. You’ll notice that the first two items in this list begin with a present participle ending in -ing. The third item (this one) doesn’t, and as a result it jars. It would have been better to start with ‘avoiding’ rather than ‘avoid’.

Bullets aren’t the answer to every writing problem, but they are a useful structural device to make your writing clearer, more readable and give key points greater impact.

Readers - like all of us - are busy people. They want to know if and why they should continue reading your text. So in your copywriting, you need to grab their interest quickly, and not make them read through several lines of secondary information before you get to the point.

Forget what you learnt at school or university about starting an essay with a nice nuanced introduction to set the scene. We’re not writing essays. We’re trying to create business writing that grabs and retains the attention of busy readers with a clear and concise message.

The way to do that is to hit them immediately with the key point of what you’re trying to say so that:

Examples:

Not: John Solicitor studied law at Weeble College, Oxbridge. He qualified in 1987 and proceeded to specialise in property law. He spent the next ten years with a leading Magic Circle firm advising a range of clients. He was made partner in 1997. He joined ABC Solicitors in 1998 as a partner in the property finance team, of which he became head in 2003.

But: John Solicitor is head of our property finance team. He joined ABC Solicitors in 1998 and became head of the team in 2003. Prior to that, blah blah

Not: With 17 partners and 34 other fee earners spread across three offices, our employment team advises a range of clients from local owner managed businesses to national and international PLCs. It is the largest team in the North East and recognised as one of the leading teams outside the Magic Circle.

But: Our employment team is the largest in the North East and recognised as one of the leading teams outside London. We advise clients ranging from owner managed businesses to national and international PLCs, blah blah

photo credit: Melody.loves.you

This month’s word is iteration.

It means the repetition of an action or process; or an instance of such repetition. It comes from the Latin iterare - to repeat.

e.g. Can you send me a new iteration of the schedule as I’ve lost mine?

However, it is often used - incorrectly - as posh way of saying version. Strictly speaking, version suggests a new, updated copy of something that has changed since the previous one was produced, whereas iteration is merely another copy of the previous thing.

When he wasn’t busy painting masterpieces or inventing helicopters, all-round-Renaissance man Leonardo da Vinci found was one of the leading thinkers of his day.

He was a simple man though, Da Vinci. The illegitimate son of a country girl and a rural notary, he regarded simplicity as the foundation of his genius. His motto was: “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

Although writing wasn’t one his greatest strengths, we can learn a lot from the bearded Florentine.

Simplicity is at the core of great copywriting. The sentences that work best are the ones that use simple, clear, straightforward language and structure. A sentence doesn’t get better the more words you stuff into it. On the contrary, it almost invariably gets worse.

Many people fall in to the trap of over-writing, trying to sound more impressive or to demonstrate their knowledge by using unnecessary words or flowery phrases.

But the most effective corporate writers make their point quickly and clearly. They use precise words and simple phrasing.

Don’t write:
“The company does not intend to remove the automatic bollards, but it is necessary to carry out repairs to the bollards for the purpose of keeping them operating effectively.”

Keep it clear and simple:
“The company does not intend to remove the automatic bollards, but it must repair them to keep them working properly.”

Or how about:
“Overestimating on one type of the relevant material could have a detrimental impact on cost-effectiveness for the client.”

Instead of:
“Overestimating one type of material could cost the clients more.”

So next time you’re tempted to throw in a few ‘corporate’ sounding phrases or flowery language to sound more sophisticated, just remember the words of our old friend Leonardo da Vinci. If simplicity was good enough for him, it’s darn tootin’ good enough for me.

There is no standard list of rules to follow that is guaranteed to turn us all into first class copywriters. (Or if there is, I haven’t found it yet.)  There are, however, dozens of ‘non-rules’ that can hinder even the most accomplished writer. 
Drilled into us at school by overzealous English teachers, or trotted out by misinformed friends and colleagues, many of them can be safely discarded. Doing so usually results in simpler, more flowing and engaging writing.
Here are six of the most common ‘writing myths’, as collated by Martin Cutts, author of The Quick Reference Plain English Guide: