Review of the Copywriting Phrasebook by Amy Harrison

The Copywriting Phrasebook

Words.  My life is made up of words.  I read them, I write them, I speak them and (professionally) I interpret them.  As a writer and a lawyer they are the tools of my trade.

And yet there are still times when I stop mid way through a blog post halted by the need for a word.  Not any word, but that one, that one on the tip of my tongue, …

Then if you are a blogger, there is the business of headings.  All the gurus tell you that your heading is really important, but it is often difficult to know what to say.

Help from Amy Harrison

Well I have recently bought a little book that might help.  Its an ebook (many of the books I buy nowadays are ebooks – you get to read them so much quicker) by a British copywriter called Amy Harrison.

As I said it is quite short.  It has a section on headlines, and then sections with suggested words and phrases to help create different effects, along with words to avoid.  This could be very useful, particularly for lawyers, for we often find it hard to write in the vernacular – our training tends towards long words and pompous phrases.

Although actually, I quite enjoy writing for a legal audience.  Only then can you use hereinbefore written,  as aforesaid, and hereinafter.  Our deeds end by effluxion of time, our briefs complain about noxious fumes, and we baffle the unknowing with our talk of mens rea, inter alia and the ratio decidendi.  Strange characters stalk through our writings – the officious bystander, the man on the  Clapham Omnibus and of course Regina (or her father, Rex).  We have our own secret meanings for execution, consideration and pleading, not to mention prayer, taxation, and being on all fours (a condition much sought after by Counsel).

But when writing for the public, these guilty pleasures must be put aside.  We must use snappy phrases, contractions and slang.  Short sentences and a casual approach.

If you are a lawyer and this is all too much for you, then Amy’s book will be a great help. And its only (at the moment) seven quid, give or take a dollar or two.

For more information see HarrisonAmy.