You might enjoy this extract from a news report by Adam Loria, spokesman for the Emergency Medical Service Canada, about a man who had been attacked and lost part of his ear: He was missing a body part to the side of his head due to the assault. Luckily he Read more…
There’s a famous saying: “Good advertising is a tax you pay when you have a bad product.” If you have a good product (or service), you shouldn’t need to advertise, as your customers will do your ‘selling’ for you (also known as word-of-mouth marketing). If your product or service is Read more…
When a friend of mine got married, he was so nervous that he made a vow to his ‘awful leaded wife’. Such a slip of the tongue is called a ‘Spoonerism’, after the Reverend William Spooner (1844-1930), warden of New College, Oxford. These are the (unverified) quotations attributed to him: Read more…
Read Giles Coren’s fabulous rant to the Times’ sub-editors who dared tinker with his carefully crafted copy. And here is their classic reply.
There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that word is ‘UP.’ It’s easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but why do we wake UP in the morning? At a meeting, why does Read more…
In a Royal Mail survey, letters were seen as the best way to create a good first impression. Writing your own business and sales letters is a key skill to have. You might be aware that you’ll be lucky to attract 1%-4% response to a ‘cold’ sales letter, but that Read more…
There seems to be an annoying little gremlin that delights in creeping into your copy and adding mistakes in the hope that you won’t notice. And you can’t trust spell-cheque [sic]. Years ago, I was tasked to write a ‘romantic’ jewellery leaflet. I wrote the headings in French but then Read more…
Things change fast. So you may want to write your own website, instead of paying a professional every time you want to update it. Building your website using a Content Management System (CMS) such as WordPress or Joomla makes this easy for business-owners to do. But what content should you Read more…