Archive for October, 2009
Happy Halloween
Saturday, October 31st, 2009WHOSE HOUSE???
Friday, October 30th, 2009
Copy has gone live
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009Well, this was exciting (for me, anyway): A website for which I wrote some copy a couple months ago went live a few days ago. (I did the front page and the About page.) The horizontal design is definitely very cool, and the overall look is just awfully clean and snappy and smart. It’s by Chrysalis Design Works.
I should add too that Paul, the gentleman whose site it is, was a pleasure to work with because he’s a stand-up guy and, as far as my unskilled eye can tell, a truly great carpenter. I wouldn’t be surprised if I called on him in the future, once we get moved into the new house this weekend.
“Push Butt.” “Rub Gently Under Arm.”
Monday, October 26th, 2009I am, like, 12. I realize that. Nonetheless, it gave me no end of pleasure to learn that these could still be found.
I honestly thought all the old air-dryers had been phased out and replaced with new ones with less easily vandalizable instructions. In fact, it would not surprise me if at some point during the ’90s or so, the major manufacturers addressed this internally in a series of very serious meetings. Some information-theory whiz must have been tasked with writing new copy that couldn’t be so readily altered by a child with a quarter.
Anyway, it was a nostalgia-inducing relief to discover this guy in the Wendt Library at UW. Thank you, academia!
Need to cut words? Call a copy editor.
Friday, October 23rd, 2009When people think about hiring a copy editor—if they think about it at all—I suspect it’s usually because they want to ensure that whatever they’ve written is typo-free and grammatically sound before they release it into the world.
But this morning, my wife reminded me of another reason copy editors are useful: We make things shorter.
Say you have a two-and-a-half-page document (as she did) that needs to be a two-page document (as hers did). A good copy editor can help. We’re well practiced in the removal of extraneous words, skilled at finding more concise ways of saying things, and trained to assess what absolutely needs to stay in a piece of copy and what can be trimmed without detracting from the overall meaning.
So the next time you find yourself faced with a 686-word personal statement that needs to clock in at 500, get in touch. Your copy will be sleeker in no time.
