A little list of linguistic offences
Speak human: Clearer language = better customer experience
What do you tend to do when/if you get rubbish customer service? You switch allegiance as soon as humanly possible, and probably tell your friends. ‘Your message/call is very important to us’ ‘We are experiencing a high volume of calls at the moment’ ‘Please do...
A 5-minute plain English test for your emails
If your email inbox is anything like mine, (or FAR more likely, your spam/junk folder) it potentially contains the odd business email that reads like it was written by a bot. A generic opener along the lines of "I trust this email finds you well", or "I'm reaching out...
Plain English Website Audit – A how-to for clearer communication
I’m currently looking for a very specific service provider locally. I found a most excellent candidate via his most excellent website. It was written in plain English. It directly addressed my needs. I instantly knew he offered the services I needed. Unfortunately,...
Accessible digital content – Alt text
Alt text, or alternative text, is a brief description of an image or other visual content that's read aloud by screen readers to help people with visual or cognitive disabilities understand the content. Alt text is an essential part of making digital content...
Words to avoid in 2024
But in the business of business, you need to keep on top of trends and make your offering as clear as possible. And if you can’t – then hire a copywriter who can.
Overly complex copy – why?
Imaging getting a brief of ‘make this as difficult as possible’? If it was a brief for an escape room, a maze or a crossword then maybe. But not in the world of copywriting. I can only imagine that overly complex was definitely part of the brief for whoever did the...
Lost in translation
Some of us copywriters (me) often write for an international audience. If you’ve been reading my posts for a while you will know that my specialism is plain English. It’s this skill that means writing for an international audience is not a tough gig for me. We’ve all...
What’s in a name
Telly ads normally make me glaze over and zone out, but the latest/current one from Hyundai caught my ear. The entire ad was about how we’ve all been pronouncing the name wrong. I don’t know how long Hyundai has been around or why they chose now to do this (though...
Wronging writing
I’m pretty confident that even the most word-shy man on the street knows about basic writing conventions. There are some basic rules. There are some basic formats. You know, for example, that you wouldn’t (in UK English) send an email to Dear Wroe (ie Dear...