What do we want from thought leadership?
The term “thought leadership” was coined in 1994 by Strategy and Business magazine’s then editor-in-chief Joel Kurtzman. “Thought Leaders,” he said, “possess a distinctively original idea,...
5 unexpected ways hiring a copy editor can improve your writing
When most people think of hiring a copy editor, it’s for finding and fixing mistakes before the piece in question is published with them, costing more than a few dollars to fix and making everyone involved...
Design Agencies Are Leaving Millions of Dollars On The Table
Designers at design agencies have a unique ability to stare at copy for days at a time and never know what it says. To them, it’s another graphic element, as it should be. But what if design agencies...
Companies that care about customers use a copyeditor
Marcus Gee wrote a great piece in the Globe and Mail about dangling modifiers. This line jumped off the page for us: The smallest hint of confusion can give the reader “a breach in time to check mail,...
You are what you post: A social media warning
Social media is the great equalizer of our time. It gives everyone the same opportunity to share their views, thoughts, wisdoms and gripes — and people take full advantage of that on a regular basis....
Strong communication skills
You see the phrase “strong communication skills” everywhere: on resumes (I have strong communication skills), on job postings (strong communication skills required), on bios (she has strong...
Five reasons not to use a proofreader.
5. You believe that bad publicity is good publicity. You accidentally refer to Fort McMurray as Fart McMurray. First it gets picked up by the usual suspects: grammar nerds who have noting better to do...
Copywriter tales
On March 10th, 2017, the Page 7 Copywriting brand was folded into Re:word. For nine years, p7 was the copywriting agency of choice for some of the biggest brands and best agencies including Google, BBDO,...
The Difference One Missed Letter Makes
You’d think that when you accidentally miss a letter whilst typing really quickly that the intent of the writing doesn’t get lost. Sometimes the words are still correct, so autocorrect or spellcheck...
What Presentation Errors Really Say
This brief video says it all: it doesn’t matter how eloquent or captivating the given presentation is — errors and typos will overpower the rest of the content as that’s all anyone will see. That...
Dodge Double Negatives
It’s not uncommon to see double negatives in writing. Now, wouldn’t that have read better if we said it’s common instead? All too often, people like to state things in their negative forms. But why?...
The Never-Ending Battle with Autocorrect
While it tends to act quite favourably when you’re typing at lightning speed on a mobile device, autocorrect is more of a troublemaker most of the time. Especially when it comes to texting or emailing...