Spotlight on Marketing

The client probably doesn’t know what editing and proofreading are, how long those tasks take, or what they’re worth. That’s not their fault. It’s your job, as an editor/proofreader, to educate them.

Marketing isn’t something you do for two hours a week – EVERYTHING you do and every decision you make in your business has marketing implications, because it affects people’s perceptions, motivations and expectations about your business.

A while ago I was asked to fix the grammar and spelling of the text of a website. Sure, I could have done that, but I chose not to because it wouldn’t have magically fixed the fact that it was just plain bad writing. So what makes a piece of writing “good”? And how does an editor fix a piece of bad writing?

This is Part 35 of an ever-growing series of blog posts, each one featuring links to 10 useful, funny and/or provocative articles/lists/blog posts/videos/sites I’ve come across about how to use twitter more effectively (and how NOT to use it).

This is Part 25 of an ever-growing series of blog postings, each one featuring links to 10 useful, funny and/or provocative articles/lists/blog postings/videos/sites I’ve come across about how to use twitter more effectively (and how NOT to use it).

On twitter, I recently came across a tweet and a blog post in which the writers both suggested that grammar isn’t important. It’s a common enough opinion. I happen to disagree with it. As a marketing consultant and a professional copywriter and editor, I care passionately about words and grammar – they’re the tools of my trade.

Maybe I’m a bit of a nerd when it comes to grammar and spelling, but I think they’re important. One kind of bad grammar that particularly annoys me is the misuse of introductory clauses in a sentence. In this article, I share some examples of badly written sentences, and offer my suggested improved versions.