How to choose a copywriter

 

We recently received an email asking for advice about becoming a copywriter. ‘Do you need to be a graduate?’ our correspondent asked. ‘What are businesses looking for?’

 

There are many routes into this profession, but one factor stands out.

 

The essential thing is to love working with words. Our background is journalism; others have come to copywriting via marketing.

 

You need the skills to find the right words to get a message across, accurate spelling and grammar (of course) and a wide vocabulary.

 

But I’d say you also need buckets of enthusiasm, creativity, an optimistic outlook and an upbeat personality.

 

Copywriting is about highlighting the best of people and their businesses, so it should be a joyful thing.

 

Even when a project is very serious, downbeat and dour, there’s joy in finding just the right words and phrases to bring the subject to life and do it justice.

 

Plucking the apposite word from the thousands offered by the English language, turning a well-formed sentence, scything through dull prose to produce something bright and powerful, tuning, toning and tickling words … these are what make a copywriter’s heart sing!

 

A happy copywriter is a successful copywriter, in our book.