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Five things your home page can do without

September 13, 2010 By Emily Leary 10 Comments

This is a guest post by Tom Albrighton, a professional copywriter and founder/director of ABC Copywriting, based in Norwich.

Planning the home page. So important, and so difficult. Often, our answer is to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. The trouble is, you end up with a lot of stuff that you really don’t need. So in a spirit of ‘less is more’, here are five things you could consider hacking away from your home page.

Welcome message

This is a contentious one. Many marketers and copywriters feel that the ‘welcome’ statement is embarrassingly old hat, and shouldn’t be present on a modern website.

I agree that it’s a cliché, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use it, or that it’s not effective.

In my view, a ‘welcome’ statement has its place if it talks to the priorities of your visitors and makes them more likely to stay. If it just wastes their time or irritates them, drop it.

For example, a niche online retailer selling speciality coffees is the kind of cosy ‘shop’ you’d like to be welcomed into, while an all-business insurance comparison site would probably do better to lead with an eye-catching offer.

If a welcome message isn’t appropriate, you can use the space to offer ‘doorways’ into other parts of the site, or an orientation statement that tells the visitor where they might like to begin browsing.

Background info

I’m a strong believer in a simple, straightforward positioning statement somewhere on the home page, just so visitors can confirm they’re in the right place. For example:

We are a small, friendly team of accountants serving clients in Carlisle and the surrounding area.

Nothing wrong with that. Every word conveys information that visitors almost certainly need, and it’s almost certainly good for SEO too. But the ‘about us’ chat should end as soon as you get into things you want to say, rather than things the audience wants to hear.

For example, it’s unlikely that anyone needs to know immediately when you were founded, how you developed, how many people you employ or (being brutally honest) anything about your beliefs, values or business ethos. Provide that stuff somewhere by all means, but don’t put it on the home page where it could get in the way of a visitor who wants to get facts or make a purchase.

Generic pitches

Many, many websites fall into the trap of making a generic pitch for the products or services they offer, rather than selling themselves specifically. For example:

If you’re setting up in business, you can give your image a major boost with a professionally designed logo and letterhead.

The visitor already knows that. That’s why they went to Google and typed in ‘logo designer’, ‘business stationery design’ or whatever. They’re already persuaded of the general benefits offered by firms like yours, so don’t fritter away their patience by restating those benefits. You’re not writing an ad for the back of a bus – online, your audience is pre-vetted, proactive and attentive.

Remember, the user has probably got a set of nine similar search results sitting right under the ‘back’ button whenever they want them. So draw them in with some reasons they should stay on your site – in other words, the specific benefits of choosing you over a competitor.

Generic selling does nothing to advance your cause and arguably gives a hand to the competition – there’s a risk that you merely reinforce the visitor’s generalised interest, allowing another site to convert it to a lead or sale later on.

Scattergun content

Looking at some home pages, you get the feeling that the company got a bit bored with their own business. On top of the basic text and the navigation, you’re looking at case studies, client logos, special offers, awards, company news, blog posts, knowledge portals, newsletter signups – everything’s been thrown into the pot.

Making a home page is a bit like making a soup. You can put in ten different vegetables if you want, but your users won’t be able to discern every last taste. Instead, you might want to use just two or three really strong flavours and give them a more focused experience. Adding more can lead to dilution rather than concentration. As I’m often telling clients: the more you write, the less likely people are to read it all.

If you look at your home page for years, it’s inevitable that it starts to look a bit dull or elementary. But your visitors have never seen it before. (OK, they might be returning for a second visit, but it still won’t be familiar.) In fact, it may be that your whole industry is a completely closed book to them. Some basic info and a reassuringly simple layout that they can get their heads round in seconds might be just the ticket.

Irrelevant imagery

If you’re selling a product, it makes sense to show the product – holidays, showers, cars. But what if you’re selling a B2B service such as web hosting or copywriting? What should you show then?

Well, you could try to show one of the tools of your trade – a web server, perhaps, or a fountain pen. Unfortunately, those things aren’t that interesting visually, and they run the risk of making your audience think about computer hardware or stationery rather than website uptime and effective communication.

So you go down the road of metaphorical or figurative illustration – light bulbs (=innovation), fast cars (=high performance), shaking hands (=partnership). That gets you a pretty picture, but again, you’re risking the audience thinking about something irrelevant, like cars. And unless you can sustain the metaphor far enough to make every point you need to make, your text is going to end up being on a different theme from your imagery, which means that the overall message will not be harmonious.

It’s difficult. Believe me, I’ve grappled with this beast many a time. But even though it’s hard, you don’t have to make it harder by choosing a design that obliges you to have a leading or ‘hero’ image. Ask your designer to solve the problem with text and graphics.

Ideally, every image should have a semiotic, rather than purely aesthetic, justification – paying its way in terms of meaning as well as decoration.

Tips for a better home page

It’s so easy to criticise. So here are a few positive pointers to help address the problems I’ve covered in this post.

  • Imagine yourself as a newcomer to your site – one with little or no knowledge of your field. How will it come across?
  • Develop your home page for visitors – not for yourself, or to outdo competitors.
  • Make sure everything on your home page has a reason to be there.
  • Don’t be afraid to use space and simplicity to emphasise key messages (or a single message).
  • Keep in mind what you want the user to do. Include a call to action and don’t be afraid to state it early on. You’re selling products or services, not website content.
  • Think of your home page text as an ‘elevator pitch’, or the words you would choose to say if you were introducing your company. Be memorable, but don’t be afraid to state simple details. Facts are reassuring.
  • Don’t sweat it. Remember the user is actively searching – they want to use you. All you have to do is remove the barriers in their way.
Filed Under: Copywriting, Guest posts, Marketing, Writing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Six questions to help your designer frame your words effectively

March 15, 2010 By Emily Leary 3 Comments

Tick boxes

This is a guest post from Andy Clayton of printing.com Lincoln & Newark.

So you’ve written – or had someone else write – some great copy all about your business, ready to go into print. The question now is how do you make this into a leaflet / brochure / flyer / booklet (delete as appropriate)?

This is where design comes in, and where things can start to go wrong. The common myth is that design is all about making things look pretty, but this is far from the truth. Design is fundamental to the success of a print marketing exercise: it’s about making the copy work, creating mood, attracting attention and initiating an action. For this reason, the first thing you need is someone who is skilled at acheiving these ends, and the next thing you’ll need is a good, clear design brief.

The following are the six questions I go through with each client before commencing any design work:

Who are you targeting?

Be specific – think about who this is actually aimed at. Every sector is different and designers will know the best way to attract the attention of different people whether it be by industry / role / gender / age. The worst answer any marketeer can hear is ‘everybody’ or ‘anyone, really’ as it is impossible to produce any material that targets everyone successfully.

What is your corporate identity?

You need to supply details of any relevant logos, images, fonts and colours so that the designer can keep to your business identity. Consistency is key in marketing. If you constantly change your image, you will dilute and weaken your message.

How do you wish to appear?

This is about how you want to position your offering in this particular piece; do you want to be seen as traditional or modern? professional or informal? luxury or budget? With this information, your designer can look at the appropriate fonts, images and colours to make sure the perception is correct.

What is the purpose?

Is this aimed at attracting new businesses who are unfamiliar with the brand or is it to give information that has been requested by clients? Designers need to know the purpose of the material so that the design can be maximised to that effect. It will dictate how the content is laid out and the focus throughout the piece.

How are you distributing?

Will you be posting, handing out or taking to an event? It is important that the design is done to the correct specification from the start as it saves time at the end. For example, if its to be posted then you need to remember the rates go up after A5 so therefore you need to either keep to that size or if it’s to be folded then it needs to be designed in such a way that the fold looks right.

What is the expected outcome?

You need to decide what you want people to do, as this defines your call to action. You need to spell out what the readers should do next and the designer needs to know this so that the design can emphasise and draw attention to the preferred action or point of contact

The questions above are there as a guide to help you create the best possible brief. By taking the time to collate the relevant information, you can reduce the time taken to produce designs, ensure your designer incorporates all relevant aspects, and therefore increase your chances of achieving success with the final piece.

Are you a blogger? March is Be My Guest month, and we’re encouraging bloggers from all over the world to swap posts and reach new audiences. See Be My Guest for more information.

Filed Under: Copywriting, Guest posts, Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Lost in translation? You don’t know the half of it!

January 14, 2010 By Emily Leary Leave a Comment

Handwritten scribbles

If you’ve ever played with an online translator like Google Translate, you’ll know that while these tools are pretty good, they’re not perfect.

Before you entrust such a tool with your promotional copy, head over to the Lost in Translation Multibabel tool and enter it there. The tool will take it through up to ten languages and back to English.

Think the results will be intelllgible? Here’s the text for one of our service pages after the Multibabel treatment. Can you tell what it is yet?

To announce the project, invested in the words, the end to control if each part of the contact writes that you are in the way of persuation with its customers and pertinent has.

You’ The RH in the transaction, each part of the writing is important. Each signal if a customer of the pages of a pamphlet pressures, not simply does not adapt it to information, he is _activement that _activement convinced, or at least would have that to be.

A good part of the copy not only declares the circumstances the end equally to work but conceited the lecturer or a certain position of its opinion or ideas of the taken one by the transactions. One leaves memorable of the writing knows the reliability of its small flag, improved ingualmente the squeeze you outside of the amount and the conservation of the manufacture of the improvement.

Our project of the advertising seemed to White Books of direct mail whole, with the national visualizations of the variety of the newspaper behind pamphlets, as with the types of this sequence of the video of the training it catalogues and in the studies finished with bulletins. In all in case that we work with the customer, the end to produce adequadamente in way of convincing form and the writing, who was starting, for the aim.

Engaging stuff, eh?

Filed Under: Copyediting, Copywriting, Proofreading, Writing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Lost for words? Five novel ways to beat writer’s block

January 14, 2010 By Emily Leary 7 Comments

Fountain pen

Getting examples of your knowledge out into the public sphere is a great way to raise your profile and prove that you understand your industry. Whether you write a blog, place articles in the media, or even pen a book, you can be sure that one day, without warning, you’ll suffer from the dreaded writer’s block.

Faced with this malady, some scour the internet for ideas to inspire them, while others head to the shops or water cooler, hoping a distraction will allow their next brainwave to come naturally. But sometimes, these methods just don’t work.

The next time you find yourself staring at a blank screen, bereft of inspiration, these five questions should help get you writing once again:

  1. When was the last time a client asked you a question about what you are doing for them or how you do it? Keep a note of these questions to create a ready list of article topics to dip into.
  2. What are the most common misconceptions about the kind of services you offer? Posts that make a complicated industry easily understood can be very popular, and will also put potential clients at ease.
  3. For each of the services you offer, there’s usually a line between DIY and calling in the professionals. Can you define that line, and what advice can you give DIYers?
  4. Do you subscribe to industry news sources to keep up with events and legislation affecting what you do? Translate these into layman’s terms to create useful news snippets for your readers.
  5. Are there others within your business with a related but different skill set or knowledge base? Make the most of the rich resources around you by inviting staff to contribute ideas, anecdotes or even full articles.

So, would these ideas work for you? What do you do when your creativity takes an unscheduled vacation?

Filed Under: Copywriting, Featured, Writing Tagged With: , , , , ,

Selling in a foreign language

December 18, 2009 By Emily Leary Leave a Comment

French dictionary success

This is a guest post by Mike Garner, director of Really Good Writing, 4Networking’s oldest members and specialists in bilingual French and English online marketing and digital PR.

In the 1980s there was a travel agency in Paris not far from the Gare du Nord whose name escapes me but whose strapline was the rather uninviting, “Please, go away”. I’m still struggling to see what was lost in translation. It was one of the worst hooks I’ve ever seen in my life. What’s more, the proud owner asked me what I thought of it and even though I translated it for him, months later the sign was still there.

I once met a British company trying to sell conservatories in France. They were wondering why they weren’t getting anywhere until someone pointed out that “conservatoire” in French means music school. The Internet abounds with scary translations of signposts or menus that we can all laugh at, but presuming you don’t want your marketing materials to be mocked, here’s a few hints about getting it right.

Think culture, not language

Don’t go thinking that just because you have a dictionary (or Google Translate) you can switch your message into another language and be understood by everyone. The UK and the USA are famously two countries “separated by a common language”. Add a real foreign language and you can imagine the cultural minefield you could be getting into.

For example, you can use themes that are slightly more overtly sexual in France but don’t go talking too much about money to the French. Stereotypes perhaps, but they have their basis in truth. Ideally, hire a local marketing agency to help you with the cultural problems that your product or service may encounter.

When you do translate, do it properly

There are some things you will have to translate, a brochure or manuals for example. Only last week, I had a conversation with someone who was surprised to learn that computers don’t to that kind of thing. Fortunately for human translators, computers have a long way to go before they are good enough to imitate real people. Machine translations are fine if you want to get the gist of what a text means, but real communication still involves real people. Ideally, you should choose one that lives in the country of the target language with extensive knowledge of the source language.

Some things HAVE to be translated

Be aware of consumer law in each country you are working in. All food labels and machine and appliance manuals must have a French translation in France for example. Not only is that a legal requirement, it makes common sense. Imagine if you brought home your new lawn mower (just to pick an example) and all the instructions were in a language you didn’t understand? We’ve all tried struggling with the VCR with the rubbish translations, getting them right is really essential for good customer service.

Remember regional differences

Just because you’ve translated a document into another language doesn’t mean to say you can use it anywhere that language is spoken. Canadian French really is nothing like the French you learnt at school. Quebec is a linguistic enclave in the middle of a sea of English and despite their efforts to preserve their French, their language is heavily influenced by what’s around them. You must think about localisation.

Employ local staff

Selling and marketing in a local language is not a DIY exercise. The experience of locals is essential and you must take on board what they say. You’ll increase your chances of success tenfold.

It would seem logical that, unless you’re selling in a really international market, you can’t sell to foreigners in English. Even though some do try. Just think about your target market a bit and take steps to think like your customers think. It’s all about them, it’s not about you.

Filed Under: Copyediting, Copywriting, Guest posts, Marketing, Proofreading, Writing Tagged With: , , , , ,

Error avoidance! Minimise your mistakes

December 10, 2009 By Emily Leary 1 Comment

Proofreading error

Startlingly large numbers of businesses seem to rely heavily on Microsoft Word’s spellchecker alone to catch errors in their professional communications. This can be dangerous practice, as mistakes are frequently missed by machines, particularly where the mistake is more to do with the grammar than spelling.

Poor punctuation, grammar and spelling in your business writing can reflect badly on your business, so here are some pointers for effective proofreading.

Read a hardcopy

It’s notoriously difficult to pick up errors when reading a document on a computer screen, never more so than when your eyes are tired and your patience is waning.

To give you the best chance of noticing errors, print your document off and check through a hard copy, underlining errors as you go with a pen with strongly contrasting ink. Once you have finished, correct the errors on your electronic copy and then repeat the process once more to ensure new mistakes haven’t been created.

Get a second opinion

When reading over your own work, it is very easy to read what you expect to see on the page, rather than what is actually written. This means that your own proofreading may miss simple errors. To prevent this, have another person check through the finished document once you have read it yourself.

Don’t forget, even if there aren’t any errors as such, a fresh pair of eyes can also help you iron out ambiguities and awkward phrases.

Be consistent

Not every proofreading mistake is a mistake if viewed in isolation, which makes some errors particularly hard to spot. For example, there’s nothing wrong with the word “synthesise”, but if it appears again later in your copy as “synthesize”, you have a problem.

This type of error is most likely to happen if you have more than one contributor to the same document, or you are drawing information from several sources before editing. To help reduce confusion, it’s useful to put a company ‘style guide’ in place which sets out the preferred form for all debatable spellings and grammatical constructions. If that sounds like too much work, it’s possible to buy style guides right off the shelf to adopt as your own.

Use ‘track changes’

If you’re working on a long document, or passing it to someone else, a great tool for those using Microsoft Word is the ‘track changes’ function. This allows you to keep a record of what changes have been made and then accept or reject them at the review stage. This can be useful if you feel certain corrections might be up for debate.

Track changes can also be used if you need to make last minute additions to a document that has already been proofed as it will highlight clearly which areas are new and therefore need to be checked again.

Check it again once it’s in position

Sometimes, errors only present themselves when the copy is in place on a leaflet or online. If you use a printing service, ask for proofing copies and check through the final documents you receive back before approving the full print run.

It’s not unheard of for printers to create new errors such as printing pages in the wrong order, so don’t assume that the copy you sent is the copy that appears in print. Similarly, cutting and pasting by web designers isn’t foolproof, so check through all your copy once your design has uploaded it but before you allow anything to go live.

If in doubt, consult a professional

If accuracy is vital for your communications and you don’t have a colleague or friend you trust to weed out any errors, it may be worth having a reputable proofreader go over the finished document. A professional proofreading firm will go through your text with a fine-tooth comb and could provide that vital reassurance you need before letting the printers roll.

Filed Under: Copywriting, Featured, Proofreading, Writing Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Honouring journalistic excellence

October 21, 2009 By Emily Leary Leave a Comment

Fountain pen

The Workworld Media Awards 2009 is an independent scheme, which has highlighted excellence in journalism for 23 years.

The awards honour written and broadcast journalism, covering the fields of work, management, business and economics.

There are eight categories available:

  • Reporter of the year
  • Feature journalist award
  • Columnist of the year
  • Broadcast programme award
  • Broadcast news reporter of the year
  • Journalist to watch
  • Online journalist award
  • Lifetime achievement award.

Last year, awards went to journalists from the BBC, The Economist, the Daily Mail, Hazards, Human Resources and The Observer, while the Lifetime Achievement Award went to Polly Toynbee, columnist from The Guardian.

Journalists can nominate themselves, or be nominated by someone else. All entries must be submitted by 6pm on Friday 6th November 2009.

More information and an entry form, visit the Workworld Media Awards 2009.

Filed Under: Awards, Copywriting, Freelancing, Writing Tagged With: , ,

What price news?

August 6, 2009 By Emily Leary Leave a Comment

Newspapers

So, Rupert Murdoch wants to charge for all online content from News Corp, which includes The Times and The Sun.

On the one hand, eyeballs are increasingly moving online, so this form of news has to be monetised if publications are to pay journalists’ wages. On the other, news is everywhere, from an abundance of sources, so should the chosen few really have the right to charge? More significantly, would you pay to retain the right to read, or simply go elsewhere?

I posed these questions over on Facebook, and I think the answers are worth reproducing here as they pretty neatly tackle the key issues.

Protecting copyright

David Bennett picked up on the associated copyright implications of charging for access to online content:

My take is that If news costs to produce, why shouldn’t the producer be entitled to charge for it if there is a demand?

I notice that the final para of the article in the Guardian states ‘He accepted that there could be a need for furious litigation to prevent stories and photographs being copied elsewhere: “We’ll be asserting our copyright at every point.”

And that I think is the nub – easy and unauthorized redistribution on the web.

So, how will News Corp police the passing of information it uncovers into the public domain? We can’t own news, just the way it’s presented.

A little rewording and the pulling together of a few additional sources and bloggers could easily push the content into the free domain with little danger of being prosecuted, successfully at least, for copyright theft.

The micro-payment holy grail

But people seem to like their news primarily from the big, established sources with professional journalists. And, as David points out, we already pay for printed media, so how will this pay-per-view system be implemented? And can it be implemented successfully?

Gaz Bailey doesn’t think so:

This is good news as far as I’m concerned, certainly regards the Sun and The [News of the World].

Adopting this model will cut the number of people accessing the content down to the much smaller number who are prepared to pay for it removing more casual readers from the pool, and if NewsCorp et al plan to litigate against anybody they perceive to be recycling ‘their’ content, God forbid that might actually clean the internet up of cretinous celebrity news a bit.

Wayne Smallman has fewer doubts about the micro-payment model in theory, but questions whether it can work it practice:

Now that micro-payments are both practical and acceptable, the idea is doable, but I just can’t see this working somehow.

As a businessman, I totally agree with Murdock’s intention of making money from the web. They are producing the news, so why not?

In practice, and when competing with blogging, micro-blogging and social media, it’s hard to make a business case for what is mostly free.

The genie is out of the bottle…

Subscription model?

So, if we accept that news is worth paying for, says Darren Gallagher, the question is, how much is it worth?

Everything will eventually end up, in majority, online. So paying for online news is a natural progression. Free newspapers are becoming a thing of the past, especially high quality ones.

So the real question is, how much are you willing to pay for news? I personally, would be willing to pay a subscription to access the paper I buy daily, but instead of picking it up from the newsagents, accessing it online.

This is because I trust the quality of the articles, editorial opinion and the overall content. I also believe that journalists should be paid for their content. So I wouldn’t begrudge paying a subscription one little bit, as long as the standard remained high.

And Rob Bennett points out that the subscription model is already working out rather well for one media giant:

There is, of course one organisation out there now who have the resources to produce totally ‘free’ regional, national and international content (TV and web) to the same level and volume as News Corp by forcing every television owner in a very large country to pay for the content it produces whether they watch it or not. I currently subscribe to the BBC for £139.50 a year.

Personally, I wouldn’t really mind a pay-per-click model since the cost would be reasonably weighted in favour of the sources I like best and use most. Yet, subscription seems the more likely model since News Corp needs to ensure a minimum bottom line.

In the end, the proof will be in the pudding. No doubt ‘old media’ will be watching with bated breath to see if News Corp can pull this off. And if it does, there can be little doubt that the rest will follow suit.

Filed Under: Copywriting, News, Public Relations, Writing Tagged With: , , , , ,

Embrassing errers: the ten biggest proofreading gaffes

June 15, 2009 By Emily Leary Leave a Comment

Proofreading error

When it comes to proofreading copy, whether it’s intended to be published online or in print, there’s no room for error. As soon as that copy is out in the public domain, it stands as a representation of whoever has written it.

The job of a proofreader is to act as a safety net for these errors, catching and modifying mistakes before they can be allowed to slip through – but sometimes, mistakes slip through regardless. Even the most diminutive of proofreading errors can cause huge repercussions, at the very least making the author seem careless and uninformed, and at the worst changing the meaning of what is being said entirely.

Although this can be amusing in some circumstances, ultimately this casts a bright light on just why proofreading is so important to your business.

Read on for ten of my favourite famous proofreading gaffes, where small instances of poor proofreading have gone on to cause widespread chagrin for the red-faced authors.

1. Proofreaders wanted

When posting an advert looking for proofreaders, you would expect the job description to be grammatically flawless. However, a job advert posted recently seeking a ‘Copy Editor for Women’s Magazine Site’ contained no less than 3 spelling errors: twice asking for ‘editting’ experience, and going on to cite the name of the magazine incorrectly as ‘Women’s World’ instead of ‘Woman’s World’.

2. Continuity error

Of course, it isn’t only orthographical gaffes that need to be picked up on by the proofreader – maintaining continuity is just as important. An early edition of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein contains the phrase ‘the latter days of December’. However, a vigilant proofreader would have altered this to ‘September’, which was the month being referred to in the rest of the passage. Later editions of the novel carried the correct date.

3. Grauniad or Guardian?

The Guardian newspaper has garnered an impressive reputation for frequent typographical errors, so much so that it has earned the nickname ‘The Grauniad’ (first used in Private Eye magazine). Often cited is The Guardian’s first ever issue, which contained the spelling error ‘atction’ for ‘auction’.

4. Mis-stated

In 1988 the University of Wisconsin awarded thousands of diplomas with the glaring error ‘Wisconson’ typed on every one. Six months passed before anyone picked up on this blunder. An official at the time defended this by saying the certificates had been proofread, but only to check their names and degree-subjects – not any of the ‘standard information’.

5. When corrections become errors

A poem by W.B. Yeats, ‘Among School Children’, contained a reference to the ‘solider Aristotle’. An over-zealous printer assumed the poet had made a spelling error and corrected it to ‘soldier Aristotle’ – a correction that stayed in print for years and gave the sentence an entirely different meaning.

6. Adulterated text

In the 1632 edition of the King James Bible the omission of the word ‘not’ gave whole new meaning to the seventh commandment, appearing as ‘Thou shalt commit adultery’. The printer of this error was fined £300 for his mistake.

7. Web figures gone awry

Several products at Comet’s online store were advertised at bargain prices in 2002, when some obviously incorrect figures were left unnoticed and went live on the site. This resulted in some lucky shoppers being able to buy, for example, an Aiwa hi-fi worth £89 for £8.43.

8. The costly comma

The case of a comma cost a Canadian cable television provider over a million dollars in 2006, when it lost a court case in a contract dispute with a telephone company. This was due to the inclusion of the second comma in the line of the contract which stated that the agreement “shall continue in force for a period of five years from the date it is made, and thereafter for successive five year terms, unless and until terminated by one year prior notice in writing by either party.”

Though the cable television company believed that the first five years of the deal were secured, the inclusion of the second comma changed the meaning of the sentence, which allowed the telephone company to terminate the contract at any time with one year’s notice.

9. Checking failure

GCSE students across England were left in the lurch in 2008, when their exam papers contained a significant disparity between question and answer booklets. The exam board responsible for the papers had failed to pick up on this and allowed some hundred thousand exam booklets to be printed before school invigilators noticed the mistake.

10. Not consulting a dictionary

A newspaper headline touting the benefits of reading Webster’s Dictionary in 2000 can hardly have done much for the Jackson Citizen Patriot’s credibility. The published story about an avid reader of the famous dictionary was accompanied by the headline: ‘Want to spell like a champ? Read Wenster’s dictionary.’

Filed Under: Copywriting, Proofreading Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,