Copywriting Made Simple
Author: Tom Albrighton
Reviewer: Rory Stobo, Chief Copywriter
Who will enjoy this book? This compact tome is perfect for anyone starting out on their copywriting journey. Recent graduates will learn to better apply theory, while those segueing into content creation from other roles get an end-to-end overview of their new job.
In just under 300 pages, Albrighton has captured the full copywriting process; not just writing better words but also nailing a great brief and dealing constructively with feedback. It’s as much about the job as the craft, something many books on the topic neglect.
What did Rory think? This is a valuable, important introductory text, and a good job has been done to balance brevity and accessibility with useful content.
That being said, having been in the copywriting game for a long time myself, I personally didn’t learn anything new per se from reading Copywriting Made Simple. What I found more useful was the number of sources referenced on topics like NLP and the deeper psychology behind consumer behaviour.
New copywriters will certainly improve their craft by reading this book. Older hands, meanwhile, should view it as a starting point to explore the research underpinning its core ideas.
Grammar for Grown-Ups: Everything you need to know but never learnt in school
Author: Craig Shrives
Reviewer: Frankie Weaver, Digital Marketing Assistant
Who will enjoy this book? Whether you’re struggling with your grammar in general and need reminding, unsure if you’ve put that hyphen in the wrong place or just miss out the occasional capital letters, this book will no doubt help you. Separated into four parts:
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punctuation
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miscellaneous
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parts of speech
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easily confused words
…each one focuses on a common mistake made by many others.
What did Frankie think of it? What I really enjoyed about this practically life-saving book is that it has all the tricks of the trade you can think of that can possibly go wrong with your grammar.
In the past I’ve often got confused with colons so reading this was very useful. It gives you the definition of the term and then gives examples on when to use them and when not to use them.
I managed to discover many new words and meanings I never knew existed, like confident, confidant and confidante. Confident is someone with confidence. Confidant is someone whom private matters are confided. I found out that the words confidant and confidante are interchangeable, but strict grammarians reserve confidant for males and confidante for females. That’s just one eye-opening example but I picked up loads more.
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