Article Sphere Logo

How Important is Grammar in Your Copy?

By Expert Author: Francis Lui | Article Abstract
Word Count: 400 words | Views: 59 view(s)
Back in school, you learned all sorts of grammar rules. Whenever you made a grammar mistake, your English composition was returned to you with red ink. Words were crossed out. Paragraphs were highlighted. Maybe your teacher even scolded you for making such silly grammar errors.

But when it comes to writing copy, it's okay to break the rules. Grammar is still important, but you don't need perfect grammar. That's because what gets the most sales or results is what matters the most.

You can begin your sentences with conjunctions such as “and,” “but,” and “or.” Your English teacher taught you never to do this. But when writing copy, it's perfectly acceptable.

Beginning your sentences with conjunctions can help break long sentences into shorter sentences. For instance, instead of one long sentence that joins two independent clauses with the “and” conjunction, you can break it down into two sentences with the second sentence beginning with “and.” Shorter sentences make your copy easier to read.

Unlike essays, you can use contractions in your copy. In our everyday conversations, we tend to use contractions a lot. Using contractions can help give your copy a conversational tone.

Slang and figures of speech can be used when appropriate. For instance, you can use the word “ain't.” You could say, “If you thought that was good ... then you ain't seen nothin' yet!” The Senmontier Strategy newsletter has used this word in one of its successful direct-mail letters.

You can use sentence fragments. This is an. Example. Of sentence fragments. While this is forbidden in the English classroom, you can get away with it in your copy. Sentence fragments can add a dramatic effect to your words –- captivating your reader's attention.

But even though you can break the grammar rules, you still need good grammar in your copy. You can't become sloppy with your grammar. If your copy is filled with grammar errors, it'll turn off your prospect.

For instance, you don't want to miss article words such as “the.” “Look at tree” is not a good sentence. It should be, “Look at the tree.” Your grammar forms an impression to your prospect. You don't want to ruin that impression with grammar mistakes such as this. It'll appear unprofessional and lower your prospect's trust.

So have good grammar in your copy. But keep in mind that you can break the rules to make your copy stronger.
Francis Lui

About the Author/Author Bio

Francis Lui is a freelance web copywriter with web technical skills. To get FREE web copywriting and Internet marketing tips, sign up for his FREE newsletter, The Web Copy Letter, at http://www.francislui.com/.

Article Source: http://www.articlesphere.com/Article/How-Important-is-Grammar-in-Your-Copy-/182739

Article Submitted: 2009-03-22 | This Article has been viewed 59 times.

Rate Article

Related Videos

Copywriting Tips: The Go To Guy
Copywriting Tips: Waking People Up
How to Sell From Your Heels - Copywriting Tips
Copywriting Tips: Unique Sales Position
Simple Writing System: Nitty Gritty
 

More "Copywriting" Related Articles

 
 

Listed below are more articles related to the above article from the "Copywriting" article category.

People interested in the above article "How Important is Grammar in Your Copy?" are also interested in the related articles listed below:

 
To begin with, within this article on business copywriting procedures, we will look at how to structure your copywriting when working for a client. There has been a great deal of copywriting done recently and it is not necessary to reinvent the wheel every time you want to write copy. It implies that we will be specifically focused upon the sales letter because this could have the major impact for you, especially if you decide to do Search Engine Optimizer copywriting.
Let's start with some very basics. So, what exactly is copy? Copy is the salesmanship through the written word. Each time you are writing copy you want to influence people to take an exact step. This is selling. Selling is trying to convey a belief to another person.
Article writers are paid 2 cents per word at the average, specifically today when competition in the field has blown up and looking for clients has become a little bit harder than, for example, 2 or 3 years ago. This has led many individuals to reconsider their desire to work for an online audience, what with the considerably scanty compensation compared to the amount of work anyone is projected to do.
While it's good to include a lot of benefits in your copy, you need to make sure the benefits you include are relevant. If you include benefits that the prospect doesn't care about, it'll bore him and lose his interest. But when you include relevant benefits, you'll get your prospect's attention.
If you don't know your prospect, your copy may not be selling as well as it should. You might write benefits that the prospect doesn't care about. He might be busy, but you may end up writing long-winded copy. You may end up solving problems that the prospect doesn't have.
You can use capital letters in your copy to emphasize something. But you have to be careful. If you use capital letters too much, it gives the impression that you're shouting. It may even appear dogmatic. And that turns off prospects.
When writing your copy, avoid including too much hype. Adding too much hype is a common mistake if you're new to writing copy. When you hype up your copy, customers find it hard to believe your claims and won't buy. Or they may believe your claims, but when they buy your product or service, they'll find out they've been fooled. And it backfires on your company in the long run. They'll spread bad word-of-mouth. Refund requests will increase.
 
Article Directory Home All Categories Writing And Speaking Copywriting
 

Can't find what you're looking for? Try Google Search!
 
Copyright © 2005 - by Larry Lim, Singapore - Article Search Engine Directory at ArticleSphere.com™
All Rights Reserved Worldwide. All Trademarks and Servicemarks are the property of the respective owners.

Afrikaans Albanian Arabic Belarusian Bulgarian Catalan Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Croatian Czech Danish German English Estonian Filipino Finnish French Galician Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Indonesian Irish Italiano Japanese Korean Latvian Lithuanian Macedonian Malay Maltese Dutch Norwegian Persian Polish Portuguese Romanian Russian Serbian Slovak Slovenian Spanish Swahili Swedish Thai Turkish Ukrainian Vietnamese Welsh Yiddish