Ellen Karsh, a writer and former director of the Mayor’s Office of Grants Administration, in New York, and Arlen Sue Fox, associate executive director for development at Sunnyside Community Services, also in New York, significantly update this edition from 2005 by including interviews with grant makers about how the current… More >>
The Only Grant-Writing Book You’ll Ever Need: Top Grant Writers and Grant Givers Share Their Secrets

Copywriting is basically the term used in referring to the process of writing the text that publicize a business, person, an idea or an opinion. A copy may be used on its own, such as a script for a television or radio advertisement, or in conjunction with other kinds of media as in the text for websites and promotional materials. The main purpose of copywriting is to create text that would persuade an audience to act by patronizing a particular product, service or viewpoint. Copywriting may also be used to sway an audience from a certain notion, or belief.

What Are Examples of Copywriting?

People encounter products of copywriting everyday through slogans, mail advertisements, jingle lyrics, website content, commercial scripts headlines, taglines, press releases or other text that are used in marketing and advertising. Copywriting can be manifested in billboards, print ads, catalogs, brochures, websites, letters, email, post cards, commercials and other forms of advertising media.

Where is Copywriting Done?

Copywriting is usually done in retail stores, advertising companies and marketing firms in a metropolitan area. The copywriting work environment is one characterized with hectic schedules that requires its workers to perform their tasks creatively under pressure. Marketing and advertising is notorious for its fast-paced nature where crises are already considered a normal occurrence. Copywriting is typified by successive assignment with immediate deadlines everyday and constant calls for eleventh-hour revisions. Copywriting is therefore a field for the dynamic, creative and bold.

How Rewarding is Copywriting?

Copywriters usually start off as assistants who earn as much as $30,000 to $35,000 a year, gradually increasing to around $40,000 once they become really adept into copywriting. Eventually they can be promoted to senior positions, earning about $100,000 and then to copywriting chief, earning around $125,000. Copywriters may also ultimately become creative director, earning as much as $200,000 a year.

Copywriting usually requires a minimum of 40 hours of work a week with expected overtime during peak seasons and important occasions. Overtime if of course compensated correspondingly. Copywriting requirement of firms usually increase in certain occasions such as the holidays for department stores and during large advertising campaigns for advertising firms.

There are usually many benefits included in the compensation package for copywriting. Profit-sharing is increasingly becoming a popular practice among firms. Copywriters are also given benefits like paid holidays or vacations, health care, hospitalization, life insurance and retirement. As such copywriting can be considered to be quite a rewarding job.

What are the Qualifications for Copywriting?

Copywriting requires a lot of creativity and the skill of putting great ideas into paper in very stylish and effective ways. Copywriting also requires a good understanding of layout and typography as visuals are yet another essential part of advertising and marketing.

Most retail and advertising firms require copywriting applicants to have a solid credentials in the field, with preference to those who have worked for at least three years in the business or a related trade. While copywriting is usually not found as a degree of concentration in most colleges and universities, a lot of copywriters take degrees in liberal arts, business management, marketing and communications. Copywriting also benefit from creative writing and thus there is a good number of copywriters coming from a creative writing and literature background.

Copywriting necessitates a good combination of solid formal education with a good writing experience. A lot of people who end up in copywriting have had not only degrees in business or communications but also experience writing in their community or school publications. Companies usually ask their copywriting applicants to submit sample essays and articles, especially published ones.

Are there Advancement Opportunities in Copywriting?

Copywriting offers a lot of room for growth and development. In department and retail stores copywriters can become copywriting chief or fashion coordinator, and then division manager or chief of advertising. In advertising firms, a copywriter may work his or her way up as a copy supervisor, then copywriting chief, then account executive, and finally creative director. Copywriting can indeed be fulfilling for those who are determined.

Copywriting can be a good career to take for those who have the right skills and interest. It is an essential component of marketing and advertising and is thus a potentially endless mine of opportunities.

Communication is mankind’s greatest achievement and if you don’t believe me think about every other major accomplishment of the human race and ask you’re self if that could have happened without good communication. The core of good communication is simply, grammar! Without a good understanding of grammar your communications skills suffer greatly which can put you at a massive disadvantage in life. Luckily, even though we often develop many bad language habits you can get a grammar study guide and online grammar course to help fix some of these problems!

Surely bad grammar can’t be that terrible?

You may think so but let’s look more closely at the ramifications. The old saying “first impressions count” is very true, human beings make very quick judgment calls when we meet someone for the first time. Even if you are well presented, courteous and friendly if your spoken grammar is not good all these things can be undone as the other persons mind immediately tags your communication as poor. Is this fair? No, but life isn’t fair and neither are most people so we must all look for the best advantage we can get in life. Poor grammar is often seen as a lack of education, or simply being lazy with your language which can be seen as being lazy in general. This is of course very bad when working or looking for work where good communication is essential and can be detrimental to your personal life as well when making friends.

Still not convinced your grammar is holding you back?

Let’s look at an example. When applying for a new job you send your resume and a cover letter by email to the company which goes to an inbox flooded with other applicants. When the employer finally has time to sift through all these emails he gives each one a cursory glance and deletes any he thinks are not worth his time to consider further until he gets down to a more manageable list. If your cover letter has even a few glaring grammar mistakes and the one before was much better written do you think your resume will get looked at? The chances are much lower and even then if you get picked for an interview if your grammar is poor you may be considered to be slow or dull instead of articulate and clever.

How about another example then? When meeting new friends you are trying to impress you try to tell an amusing story, you notice however that some of your audience is a little put off by your grammar bungles or even worse they interrupt you and tell you your mistakes making you look a fool. Social humiliation is not fun and while you may be a wonderful storyteller or joker your true talent will always be overshadowed by poor grammar!

I don’t have time to be an expert on English grammar!

You are right, it takes a long time to become very good at grammar but perfect grammar is not essential just good grammar is all you need. Avoiding the common mistakes and knowing what really jars peoples sense of language is the real trick to speaking and writing well, to this relearning grammar as an adult via an online grammar course or grammar study guide can be an essential part of giving yourself a major boost to your career and social life!