[scoot]

Or who has missing punctuation, or poor formatting, or bad grammar, or incorrect use of idioms, or, or, or...

Sure, "everyone's a critic" (and sorry to join the crowd), but if you're going to promote yourself as a professional copywriter you should at least have a grasp of the basics.

[scandox]

In fairness her focus is much more on message and content than on correctness. I do agree that she would benefit from a copy editor but the main challenge a lot of business owners have is with what to say, rather than saying it with perfect grammar.

So I imagine she may well be able to help people who struggle with that. Which in my experience is almost everyone in business.

[dghlsakjg]

Grammar and spelling are table stakes for copywriting. A copywriter shouldn't sell themselves on it, or mention it, because it is an assumption that it will be good.

When a copy writer is offering a service with bad copy, it casts into doubt their ability to write or edit copy.

I ran this sentence from the article through google docs:

>There was overwhelm of not knowing how to start a website, what pages to include, and what those pages should even be doing.

Google docs correctly picked up the error, and made the correct suggestion. I expect that a copy editor will NEVER turn in copy that has not been run through a basic automated check.

[token6053]

Hey, I get it. I totally understand if writing "there was an overwhelming feeling" seems more correct to you. But my goal is to relay a message as I hear it from the target audience which explains a lot of those strategic choices I made in the blog post (trust me, me and Google spell check were good friends throughout the writing process). But I try not to use Google spell check like it's a God. More like a helpful angel on my shoulder.

[dghlsakjg]

Overwhelm is a verb that is being used as incorrectly as a noun in this sentence. It can’t be the subject of the sentence since it is a verb. This isn’t about what seems more correct, or about an accepted although incorrect usage. If you have examples of it being used in this way please do point to them.

Otherwise, realize that this is your target market giving you very direct feedback.

Edit: I love that you are responding and open to feedback. But, again, the mistakes that people are mentioning are not trivial, nitpicks, or a matter of opinion. You are the only person that search can find who has ever used the phrase “there was overwhelm of”…

[token6053]

I understand your point of view, truly. But I disagree with the premise that because I have used that phrase we have to throw the baby out with the bath water. Essentially, the point of copy is not to follow each and every grammar rule. It is to make sales. Nothing more, nothing less.

Also, here's an interesting post from the Columbia Journalism Review: https://www.cjr.org/language_corner/overwhelming-overwhelm-w.... The author acknowledges that the word "overwhelm" has been used as a noun since the 1500s.

It may not be everyone's cup of tea. But it doesn't need to be.

So there are two truths here. Yours and mine, which can happily coexist :)

[dghlsakjg]

And yet…

You corrected kahunas to cojones, and cleaned up the copy around nouning overwhelm so that it read like the article you found. Your original usage was clunky, and we were trying to give you valid feedback. You are sticking to your guns in the thread while making ninja edits in the copy.

Feedback hurts, but at the end of the day, we’re trying to help you. You keep saying it’s not about correctness, but about sales. What we’re telling you is that your incorrect grammar is losing you sales.

[tasogare]

At $600+ the prestation it has to be perfect grammar wise, especially for a service focusing on text. I was also annoyed by the wrong use of kahuna and begs the question and I'm not even a native speaker of English.

[token6053]

That's the thing: the copy does not need to demonstrate perfect grammar. All that matters is that the copy results in sales. Although I do realize that some may disagree with that sentiment. To each his own!

[scoot]

That's a fair point, as that is the primary role of a copywriter. However the author is targeting startups who are unlikely to have the budget to hire an editor to fix the copy provided by the copywriter. It should be part of the package, but on the basis of the OP's own sales copy, it isn't.

[token6053]

You're right on the money. Although I'm definitely adding a copy editor to my list of things to invest in ASAP.

[jmull]

Well actually...

It's OK these days, in common vernacular, to use "begs the question" to mean something that prompts or suggests a question. It's really only in the context of "Philosophy 101" (where the meaning is the logical fallacy of the premise assuming the conclusion) that it should not be used that way.

If you're going to get pedantic on the Internets, you better be prepared to go all the way down. :)

[token6053]

I've got to say it's a good thing that I'm not hired to write blog posts. Thanks for sharing your opinion! Every critique helps to build valuable skills.

[slg]

Language changes based off usage. Her use of "begs the question" isn't it original meaning, but it is perfectly acceptable today. It is similar to how the dictionary definition of "literally" now includes it meaning "figuratively". Continuing to complain about these things after society has moved on just makes you sound like an old crank.

[jfk13]

Although I'm a language traditionalist at heart, this is a reasonable point. Nevertheless, the site does suffer from a number of unquestionable copy-editing errors, which do not inspire confidence in the product -- given that it is entirely focused on website copy.

[margalabargala]

On the other hand, as evidenced by this thread, there exist a nonzero number of people who still care about the old "correct" choice of language. If the author is targeting people in this demographic specifically, they should know better than to provide easy ammunition for people to criticize the article.

It might be fine in general writing, but if I'm a startup paying for an ostensibly well-written press release, I don't want to pay for something that spawns this exact discussion, rather than discussions about the content I want to communicate.