5 Mar
Yes, this looks like an ad for Ikea’s Poäng chair, but it’s not. This is my favourite writing spot in the house. There are windows along one wall and continuing for a bit around a corner, so I feel surrounded by light. And, okay, the Poäng chair is pretty comfortable too.
25 Feb
Oof. What busy times I’ve seen since my last post! On Friday I left on a last-minute trip to visit my parents in Ontario, returning on Monday to a busy workload. While I was at my parents’, I did unearth some . . . interesting material from my writerly past that I have planned for a blog post once I can sit down and prepare it. In the meantime, here are some good things other people have written recently:
17 Feb
The post title comes from a question I came across on LinkedIn a few months ago, and it’s been knocking around in my head ever since. I suppose the only way to really answer this question is subjectively. There isn’t, as far as I know (and if there is, I bet I’m in trouble), a governing body for copywriters that calls us to a copywriting bar or something.
So. What education is needed to become a copywriter? My subjective answer is: absolutely none. And here is why I say this: I am a copywriter and I have no education.
Well, not no education. I did graduate high school, but that’s about it. I know now that I can hold some out-of-date opinions about how to move through the world. This was evidenced when, upon graduating high school, I decided it would be more logical to spend my post-high school years in the working world. I would enter at the lowest level and work my way up, just like in the wholesome ’50s! At the time, I dreamed of working in publishing. I sent my wee resume along to every publisher in Toronto, with a cheeky letter saying, essentially, “I love books and will sweep floors if I have to.” I was surprised at the time that nobody took me up on this too-good-to-miss offer.
I ended up working in restaurants, pursuing web and magazine writing opportunities as they arose in my free time. As always, I read a lot and wrote as much as I could, getting used to adapting my voice and tone to the subject matter. After a few years I moved to Calgary and began working office jobs, including my first marketing & communications job, which I held for five years. The rest, if I may be cheesy, is history.
Now, I’m not advocating shunning post-secondary education in the least. In fact, by rights I shouldn’t have even got that job I just mentioned – the posting called for someone with a BA. It was just luck that they overlooked that. I’m merely saying that, with copywriting, all you really need to succeed is a good grasp of spelling and grammar and a way with words. I have those things naturally (tooting my own horn, yes). I like to think that early employers took a chance on me because they liked my writing (I still hold the record for best speller at the aforementioned marketing & communications job), and sensed how much I love writing. As a freelance copywriter, I’ve not had a single prospective client ask about my education. They only care about how awesome I can make their project sound. In the end, experience spoke louder for me than any degree I could get.
What do you think? Is higher education necessary to become a copywriter?
5 Feb
This one isn’t actually a pet peeve of mine, but my huband’s. However, I think it’s an interesting one so I’m sharing it today.
Before I met my husband, I thought, like lots of others, I thought “begging the question” was the same as “raising the question” – like, “It’s Donut Friday, which begs the question – why am I not eating a donut right now?” It turned out, that’s totally incorrect.
“Begging the question” is actually a logical fallacy. Sounds complicated, but basically, begging the question is a statement that assumes its conclusion is proven correct without any evidence. Like this:
“If donuts weren’t delicious, then everyone wouldn’t eat them.”
In this sentence, the assumption is being made that its conclusion – everyone eats donuts – is true, without any proof of that. Just stating something doesn’t make it true. It’s also using that assumption as evidence that donuts are delicious. For these reasons, this sentence is begging the question.
Make sense? I hope I’ve explained that clearly. As you can tell from the examples in this post, my thought power is being eclipsed by donuts right now. My friend Teri and I have been talking about the office tradition of Donut Fridays, and I’ve decreed freelancers can also take part in it. Granted, those working from home will lack the anticipation of the endless possibility contained within the Tim Hortons box, but even still, I’m off to get a donut. Have a good day!
15 Jan
I’ve been hearing about Biznik lately and finally checked it out for myself – here’s my profile.
Wow, that sounded like a commercial, didn’t it? Either way, Biznik seems pretty neat so far. It’s social networking amongst other entrepreneurs who are into sharing ideas and information. It sounds like LinkedIn, but it seems more geared towards relationship building rather than getting connections. Here’s an article about it from the Duct Tape Marketing blog.
Anyway, I’ve created my profile and am still getting my bearings, but it seems fun! Let me know if you’re on Biznik too!
6 Jan
A couple of weeks ago, I was talking to a friend of mine about different confusing things that’ve happened around my name. He mentioned it’d be a good blog post, so here it is. Let it not be said I don’t take suggestions well!
Over the years, both before and after I got married and changed my name, I’ve encountered a few other “Me”s. Here are my favourites:
1) My Twin From the Other Side of the World
The main reason I took my husband’s name when I got married is because I liked it better than mine. Another – minor – reason is that my old last name was often mispronounced and misspelled and, after so many years, it really bugged me. However, I received some comfort when I stumbled upon another woman with my exact name online. The funny thing is – she was a writer too! We even had similar writing styles. If she didn’t live on the other side of the world I might have been a bit more creeped out about it than I was. Shortly after I’d Googled myself and found her, she’d Googled herself and found me. We exchanged emails and she was quite charming, though emailing “myself” was very surreal. My name was unique enough that I’d never encountered someone else by that name before. Sometimes I feel like I should email my twin now and tell her, “You win – the name’s yours!”
2) The Bizarro Me
On a certain social network which shall remain nameless, there exists a Samantha Garner who is my age and lives in my city. However, she is very much not me and, if prospective clients Googled me and thought she was me, there’s a good chance I wouldn’t ever hear from them. Don’t get me wrong, whatever Bizarro Me wants to do on her slice of the internet is cool and I don’t begrudge her anything, but it’s why I put a photo of myself up on this site in the latest redesign. My name is my brand, so I want to make sure I’m representing myself accurately. Future clients need not worry – I keep my private life locked down tight on this here internet.
3) The Other Wordscience
The name of my blog, Wordscience, follows a theme I’ve used often in names for things online. It started from a phrase I misheard on TV: “new science.” At the time, it resonated with me. I thought that new science would be a pretty neat thing to experience. The sound of the phrase and its attendant imagery stuck with me, and I used variations of it over the years. So, it made sense that I’d call my blog Wordscience. The problem is, when I went to register Wordscience as a Twitter name, I discovered it already existed – and her name was Samantha too! Fair enough, she got there first. And so WordscienceBlog is my Twitter name. It’s also why I use the word “blog” in the blog’s name even though that’s gauche. Sometimes necessity is the mother of gaucheness.
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