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| Misspellings mean business |
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| Oh yes.
You may have found this page in a search engine selection. If so, there’s a good
chance your selection was based on a misspelling. Excellent, no need to feel embarrassed:
you are now looking at a page that catches
common misspellings of words related to copywriting. They’re listed
below (twice for search-engine effectiveness), if you’re interested.
Every website should contain a similar page. Misspellings and variations are
common; but, literate or illiterate, slapdash or conscientious, we’re all potential
customers.
Check out the rest
of the site to see how copywriting should be spelt – and done. Or
move on to the Text Wizard's Foolproof Guide to
Proofing.
| THE LIST |
copywriting,
copywriters, copywriter, copywritng, copywritiing, copwyriting, copy writing, copy writng,
copy writers, copy writer, copy-writing, copy-writng,
copy-writers, copy-writer, copyriting, copyriters, copyriter, copy riting, copy riters,
copy riter, copy-riting, copy-riters, copy-riter, copyrighting, copyrighters,
copyrighter, copy righting, copy righters, copy righter, copy-righting, copy-righters,
copy-righter, coppywriting, coppywriters, coppywriter, coppy writing, coppy writers,
coppy writer, coppy-writing, coppy-writers, coppy-writer
copyediting, copyeditors, copyeditor, copy-editing, copy-editors, copy-editor,
copy editing, copy editors, copy editor, coppyediting, coppyeditors, coppyeditor,
coppy-editing, coppy-editors, coppy-editor, coppy editing, coppy editors, coppy editor
proofreading, proofreaders, proofreader, proof-reading, proof-readers, proof-reader,
proof reading, proof readers, proof reader, prooofreading, prooofreaders, prooofreader,
prooof-reading, prooof-readers, prooof-reader, prooof reading, prooof readers,
prooof reader, profreading, profreaders, profreader, prof-reading, prof-readers,
prof-reader, prof reading, prof reader, prof readers, prooffreading, prooffreaders, prooffreader, prooff-reading, prooff-readers,
prooff-reader, prooff reading, prooff readers, prooff reader |
| AND AGAIN |
copywriting,
copywriters, copywriter, copywritng, copywritiing, copwyriting, copy writing, copy writng,
copy writers, copy writer, copy-writing, copy-writng,
copy-writers, copy-writer, copyriting, copyriters, copyriter, copy riting, copy riters,
copy riter, copy-riting, copy-riters, copy-riter, copyrighting, copyrighters,
copyrighter, copy righting, copy righters, copy righter, copy-righting, copy-righters,
copy-righter, coppywriting, coppywriters, coppywriter, coppy writing, coppy writers,
coppy writer, coppy-writing, coppy-writers, coppy-writer
copyediting, copyeditors, copyeditor, copy-editing, copy-editors, copy-editor,
copy editing, copy editors, copy editor, coppyediting, coppyeditors, coppyeditor,
coppy-editing, coppy-editors, coppy-editor, coppy editing, coppy editors, coppy editor
proofreading, proofreaders, proofreader, proof-reading, proof-readers, proof-reader,
proof reading, proof readers, proof reader, prooofreading, prooofreaders, prooofreader,
prooof-reading, prooof-readers, prooof-reader, prooof reading, prooof readers,
prooof reader, profreading, profreaders, profreader, prof-reading, prof-readers,
prof-reader, prof reading, prof reader, prof readers, prooffreading, prooffreaders, prooffreader, prooff-reading, prooff-readers,
prooff-reader, prooff reading, prooff readers, prooff reader |
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| Why bother? |
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Right,
so you’ve just written something magnificent. You want to get it published on the web –
or in print – right away. But wait. Give it a few more minutes and you’ll be publishing
a much cleaner document. Allow another 24 hours, and you could be publishing something that
justifies your pride.
Find out how with the Text Wizard’s Foolproof Guide to Proofing.
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| Get
into the habit |
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Checking your
written work isn’t something you do as a penance during Lent. Get into the habit, make
it part of your life, and it’ll come naturally. Your written words speak as much about you
as they do about your subject matter. Let the subtext be: "I'm someone who pays attention." |
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| Use
your spellchecker |
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Running a
document through your spellchecker is the minimum you should do. It’s free and it’s quick.
Ignoring your spellchecker is a crime against technology.
Having said that, spellcheckers aren’t much good at catching
errors – great for a first pass over a
piece of work, but no substitute for human intervention.
And take your spellchecker's grammatical hints with a pinch of salt. Even if it did
give reliable grammatical advice (which it doesn’t), it pays to break the rules when
you want to liven up your copy. |
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| Buy
a new dictionary |
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That dictionary
you saved from school days is useless. Spellings have moved on. New words spill off the street every day, while old ones shrivel
with age. The most common change is for separated word pairs to draw closer via hyphenation towards eventual joined-at-the-hip concatenation:
'proof reader' becomes 'proof-reader' becomes 'proofreader'.
So buy the biggest and best dictionary you can afford. No two dictionaries are the same, so you are
free to choose the one you like best. And then, for the sake of consistency, stick with it. The only time you need to change your dictionary
is when your favourite publisher releases a new edition.
Refer to your dictionary frequently when proofreading. Even if you spell well, you can become out-of-date through
complacency. For instance, if you're still writing 'mediaeval', you run the risk of sounding out of touch. It's not wrong (you might
prefer 'mediaeval' for any number of personal or commercial reasons), it's just that modern dictionaries list 'medieval' as the most
common contemporary spelling. |
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| Hard
copy for proofing |
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Text is
more easily read and checked in hard copy. It’s old-fashioned and a dreadful waste of resources,
but you’ll do a better job if you print the document out – and then find somewhere
comfortable to read it. |
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| Take
a fresh look |
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The problem
with checking your own work is that you read what you expect to read, not what’s there.
The most efficient proofreader is someone who’s new to the text. Ask a friend to proofread
for you – and then check it again yourself.
Take a break before you do your proofing. The longer the
break, the fresher the copy will seem. Take it slow, and roll every word around in your
head as if you’d never read it before. Avoid going on autopilot, because you’ll read
what's in your head, not what’s on the page. |
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| Take
nothing for granted |
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This is
the hard bit. How do you know that what you’ve written is accurate? Where did you get
the data from? Who told you that last year’s sales were £2.5m, or that John Smyth spells
his name with a ‘y’?
There’s no way out of this: you have to check the facts yourself. Go
back to the source for verification. The source could be anything:
published annual accounts–Yellow Pages–an encyclopedia–government
statistics. Don’t rely on word of mouth or someone
else’s poorly-researched report. Do whatever it takes to get your facts right. You are
responsible for what goes into your document. If it’s wrong, you have no one to blame
but yourself. |
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| Columns
of data |
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Get a
friend to help. Your friend reads the original list out loud (stops you rereading what you
thought was there), you check it on your copy. |
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| Consistency
is as important as accuracy |
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You see
this all the time: one paragraph says 'e-mail'; the next, 'email'.
Inconsistencies are inevitable when several people contribute to a project. Someone
has to pull those different spellings and styles into a coherent whole. And then everyone else
has to follow the style.
There's only one way to do this. You compile your own house style and in-house
dictionary (see below). And if you enjoy being unpopular, you volunteer to police it.
Checking for inconsistencies is different to any other kind of proofreading. There may not
be a right or wrong answer (both 'e-mail' and 'email' are acceptable), but there will only
be one consistent answer. And that's the way you wrote it yesterday...or last
week...or last year. |
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| Codify your
house style |
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House style
is your corporate style extended to the written word. Just as you – or maybe your lawyers! – worry
about maintaining a strong visual corporate identity, so should you keep your content consistent.
Your house style can be as detailed as you want. And it can cover whatever you want: from maximum
sentence length (great for curbing your colleagues' excesses) to how to display dates and times.
COMING SOON: TEXT WIZARD'S TIPS ON COMPILING A HOUSE STYLE |
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| Build
an in-house dictionary |
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Every industry
has a set of terms that are commonly used, but rarely found in dictionaries. Some are jargon,
some are just plain new – but the way you apply them reflects on your corporate professionalism.
When you use your own industry terms inconsistently, it tells everyone that you don't really know
your business. IT companies are the worst offenders. How many times have you seen 'website', 'Website',
'web site', and 'Web site' on the same...er website?
It doesn't matter which you choose – just stick to it. So put your keywords into a
dictionary – and add some definitions if you're not convinced that your colleagues
understand them. When everyone follows the spellings, you present a seamless professionalism that'll be
the envy of your competitors. |
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| Common
errors |
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| its / it's |
its book = possessive, 'book of it'
it's green = contraction of 'it is green' |
| PC's TV's book's |
plurals never come with apostrophes,
not even when they're abbreviations |
| there / their / they're |
there = a place, somewhere
their book = possessive, 'book of them'
they're = contraction of 'they are' |
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MORE EXAMPLES TO FOLLOW |
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