Everyone who writes articles on a page on a social network or fills a blog on a site is a bit of a copywriter. That is, ordinary people who tend to make mistakes. Today we will analyze the most common mistakes newcomers to copywriting.
Professionals in their field do not allow such blunders, and amateurs often give themselves away precisely with these errors. Some errors are neither related to grammar, nor to stylistics, but significantly worsen the quality of the text, so let's go!
1.Use of quotation marks.
INCORRECT: Quotation marks (“...”) are considered bad form when writing texts in Cyrillic. Today it really hurts the eye. In the best case, the reader will simply pay attention with bewilderment, and for a visual esthete this may be a real reason to never return to this page again.
CORRECTLY: Herringbone quotation marks ("...") are classic writing. This format does not attract any negative attention and is simple and easy to read by the user. Today, all text editors have auto-correction, but even if for some reason this option is disabled for you, then spend a few minutes and fix it manually.
2. Confusion of the hyphen and dash.
INCORRECT: use a short dash (-) as a punctuation mark. A short line, a hyphen, is used exclusively for words (for example, once, someone, somewhere, etc.). This is taught at school, but after a year we forget a lot. Again, automatic correction is often triggered when we pose problems before and after the hyphen. But sometimes there are exceptions. Check once again on your own, because such an error is not just bad language, it is illiteracy.
CORRECTLY: use a dash as a punctuation mark. This sign is visually much longer than a hyphen, it is difficult to mix them up. If auto-correction does not work, then before each dash it is necessary to use the combination ALT + 0151 for a long dash (-) and ALT + 0150 for a short dash (-).
3.Titles and subheadings.
INCORRECT: Do not select subheadings. Reading a white canvas is not interesting to anyone, and even if the subtitles are separated from the main text by paragraphs, but not highlighted, they do not work. Most readers visually perceive and remember the text, and the highlighted subtitle shows the importance of the material presented below. If we miss this point, then we are simply wasting text.
CORRECT: highlight headings and subheadings in bold. You can also make them a little larger font (1-2 units). This design greatly simplify the perception of the text. It will be faster to remember and improve the arrival of readers on the page.
4.Spaces. A lot of gaps.
INCORRECT: Put double spaces or problems after periods and commas. Such a text seems groomed and not read. He can push away not only the one who constantly deals with writing texts, but also a simple user who does not like neglect. Frequent mistakes of this nature repel the audience and make it disloyal.
CORRECT: Just be careful when writing and read the text well before publishing. And you can also make auto-replace two spaces with one. However, if the text is small, then it will be faster to read it.
Remember that the copywriter is also a person, he has the right to make a mistake, just be careful!
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