Copywriting Mistakes I Spotted Lately and How to Avoid Them
Not everyone who’s asked to write copy is a full-time copywriter. This is why an editor, or just a second pair of eyes, is a godsend. However, sometimes you’re faced with a writing task and no editor. What can you do to avoid mistakes? What tactics can you use to improve your writing overall and reduce your mistakes?
Let’s unpick some mistakes I spotted in April and find ways to avoid them in your writing.
1. Redundancy & incorrect preposition
Firstly, ‘uniquely different’ is a redundancy – something is either unique or different. If it’s unique it’s inherently different, but something ‘different’ may not be unique. And secondly, ‘different’ can’t be used with ‘amongst’ like this. The phrasing in UK English is ‘different from’ or ‘different to’ (in some cases in US English ‘different than’).
How to avoid it?
Always double check your adjectives when you’ve used more than one. Nine times out of ten, one is ample.
The best way to eliminate grammatical errors is through practise, taking courses to improve your language usage, and having a proof-reader or editor help point out errors.
You can always check phrasal prepositions in a dictionary, such as the Cambridge dictionary. Once you’ve checked enough times, they’ll stick in your head.
2. Unintentional cultural meanings in another language
Let’s assume this isn’t intentional and, since I found it on the website of a spa in another country (for work, I promise), let’s assume it wasn’t written by an English native speaker. The problem is with the sexual undertones of the word ‘frisky’ in English. If you’re the owner of or an employee at this spa, you almost definitely don’t want your patrons doing anything frisky in your whirlpool – the cleaning doesn’t bear thinking about. Probably it came from a word in the source language which could translate as ‘lively’ or ‘frisky’ but ‘lively’ still sounds a bit sexually suggestive in this context.
How to avoid it?
Don’t assume an automatic translation has chosen the right words for your context. Always at least have your work proofread by a native speaker, if not translated.
Check a collocation dictionary as well as a regular dictionary, it shows you the context in which a word usually appears, which helps you gain a better understanding of any underlying meanings.
Use a thesaurus but use it wisely. There’s almost always multiple ways to translate a word. If you can only think of one translation for an adjective especially, try using a thesaurus to see if there are other, more suitable words with the same meaning in your target language.
3. False causation
This happens a lot and is really easy to miss in your own work. Here we have two separate facts about the windows: they were sourced from Loewen and they allow natural light in. The comma followed by the ‘ing’ word (the gerund) suggests that the first clause causes the second. But it doesn’t. Wherever you sourced the windows from, they’d still aid the natural light to the space.
How to fix it?
Proofread your work or have it editor/proofread by somebody else. Really the only way to avoid this mistake it to practise your writing, practise sense-checking your own work and have someone else point it out to you. There’s nothing like a second pair of eyes.
For sentences with this ‘comma + ing’ construction (e.g. “The full-length curtains are a trendy teal shade, giving the illusion of a higher ceiling”) > Try flipping the clauses around. So: “The curtains give the illusion of a higher ceiling because they are a trendy teal shade” (we immediately know it’s wrong). Or in this case: “The windows help flood the interiors with natural light because they were sourced from Loewen” (again, it becomes much clearer).
4. AI Wrote My LinkedIn Job Ad…
I saved the real whopper for last. I could have highlighted the entire text.
We all know how this LinkedIn job posting came about. It was generated using an AI writing tool. Probably the tool was told to use enthusiastic or elevated language and so the tool has replaced every possible word with its most-elevated or antiquated alternative. Or, somebody has swallowed a thesaurus and decided to vomit every word they learned.
The result is that it reads weirdly like a poorly attempted re-write of a Jane-Austen-era novel, not a job advert. The flowery, formal word choices sound comical in the context – doubly comical because is a ‘data entry’ role. This could possibly – very possibly – work if advertising for a role in a prestigious venue (The Ritz, Claridge’s, Buckingham Palace), perhaps as a head sommelier at a winery in Champagne, or if it were a tongue-in-cheek advert. But unfortunately, it’ll just miss it’s target audience here.
How to avoid it?
Write like a human. Better yet, have your pieces written by a human to avoid overly ornate language that obscures the meaning and aim of the text.
Always check your context. Take a good look at the ‘setting’ your writing will end up in – is it a LinkedIn job ad? Is it a magazine advertorial? Will it be read aloud for a voiceover? How long do you have to grab your audience’s attention? All these things inform word choices.
Create a glossary of go-to words for your brand or a word cloud. If you find your vocab has left the realms of the word cloud, you probably need to return more closely to it. You don’t always have to use just those words, but they help you ground your tone of voice and keep it cohesive.
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Did you spot or make any mistakes this week? What are your best tools for weeding out errors and sense checking your work?
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