I like this article. Sometimes as a writer it’s easy to get caught up in “this is right” and this is “wrong” – TECHNICALLY. But really, these days, it’s all about “what’s effective??”

Forget right and wrong (within reason of course) and go for what grabs attention and keeps your readers from leaving the page!

Hi Miguel,

Nice post… just by coincidence, I happened to revive an old article of my own on the same topic. I posted it on my blog about a week ago. Since it shares some of these same insights, I thought maybe you and your readers might enjoy seeing my notes on this too.

As always, you’ve got some great stuff going over here!

Great minds do think alike John… But you’re right, it is a freakish coincidence and it actually looks as if I had swiped your post! (I didn’t of course)

Great tips. Writing in too formal of a tone can turn off as many readers as say writing entirely in slang.

I have a tendency to over punctuate, as a way to excuse my run on sentences I suppose. I’m working hard to refine my writing skills. (Even though I’m told my run on sentences are endearing.)

I agree with you but am still cautious in using lazy punctuation and grammar. While a sprinkle of ellipsis here and slang there can help with the casual tone of your writing, it’s important to remember you are an authority and your writing should reflect it. Great topic to discuss!

I enjoyed this article, too.

Sometimes an article that is totally grammatically correct can seem laboured if it is intended for an informal setting. I often use shortenings, phrases, slang or whacky punctuation – but I use them deliberately. (As I just did there!)

I think a reader can tell the difference between something that is just poorly written and something that has been deliberately written in an “easy” style.

I used to work for Yahoo as an editor. I spent 1 year correcting other peoples’ bad grammer. Not it drives me crazy when I see grammer mistakes online. What have they done to me

Oooop – Maybe I should have checked my own grammer before pressing the submit button…for shame!!

Thanks, I also enjoyed this article. I believe that it is important to convey messages to readers in the way that we generally speak. So being overly concerned about proper grammar seems excessive. Most of us don’t speak like that anyway.

Especially for the internet, I think it’s better to write for the reader and if it needs to be really informal, then that’s that. I love breaking grammer rules though! Very satisfying for a weird reason

My former wife says an ellipsis is never over 3 dots…it drives her crazy to see this rule broken.

Good points! I just wish there was a more general adherence to good grammar. How often do you see plurals with apostrophes these days? How about the very common confusion of its and it’s? There are at least a dozen or so others that you can run into daily.

hope helps me in my 1st copywriter stint….

This is my first visit to your site. I truly enjoyed the piece you wrote on, “The 5 Grammar Rules it’s OK to Break”. Stating the following seems appropriate. I do not write copy, have never been a writer for career in any way. However, I am writing a script. Whoa! Now, prior to deciding to take on this task. I had not anticipated that beyond writers block. The writer has to overcome the self loathing phase of kicking oneself in the ass for not paying more attention in English and reading class during Jr high. Making the decision whether to write in proper grammar or taking some grammatical liberties in the script have come to fruition. When I’ve approached screenwriters via e-mail I have received all the answers, (mind you not one is identical thus not making anything conclusive). I have come to an understanding. Simply by reading this article. I realized that the only way to write correctly is to know your audience and write for that target audience. Now I’m not implying that if someone were writing a children’s movie. The writer has to write at grade level. So it stands to reason that the audience will probably be more forgiving if the writing fits the story. I believe this will likely prove far greater than knowing where to place a coma. True or False?

I couldn’t agree more. You can break a few rules and still write copy that is clean and reads smoothly.

Yes interesting. But, I just wish you would actually write about what is in your headline. Or find a more acurate headline. As far as I can tell you told us about 4 basic gramma tools we could use and not 5 rules we should break. Sure your heading got me to read this but it left me feeling disappointed even though you have some good points. I’m inclided not to trust your headings in the future – if I trust your headings engough to bother.

All too often professional writers get caught up in this debate over true grammar. It�s my belief that copy should always serve the subject and not the other way round.

In some cases turning grammatical conventions on their head will benefit your copy while in others, it�ll prove detrimental.

As with any creative venture, the end result should always serve the subject!

Really enjoyed the post thanks�raised some interesting points…

Like your post. However, I would say to err on formality side for the actual copy. Save the informal stuff for email correspondence. Some shorthand helps matter move faster.

Best,

Daniel B
CopyStratic.com

Great points. I think the most important task in any piece of copywriting is to get the message across in a way that the audience will understand and relate to. An understanding of grammatical rules is important, of course, but what sets copywriting apart from simply stringing words together is the ability to engage; and I believe that engagement is usually easiest when using a conversational tone. This is particularly the case in web copy.

Unfortunately clients don’t always see things this way…

I absolutely agree. I’m a copywriter (mainly web) and it comes with a huge amount of client variety. I know each client is different and therefore they all require a different tone of voice, so sometimes THEY want YOU to break the rules for them. I wrote a website for a music promotion recently (aimed at under 25 year old vokda drinkers) and they made it perfectly clear that the rule book should be thrown out the window. I only wish more clients were as prepared to take risks like that.

quite interesting.because most of the people thinks that copywriting must be grammar free and error free.

Interesting post. So much depends on the job, the client, the target audience. My area of B2B copywriting is far less accepting of grammatical variety than consumer copywriting

It’s nice to know that breaking some of these rules is OK…especially since I tend to do it most of the time! After reading a few of your other articles I’ve tried to sharpen up my writing and cut out extraneous words. This usually means removing parenthesis etc as these devices seems to simply mirror the way I speak (I’m a bit of a rambler!).

It´s exactly the same problem in Denmark. I sometimes have to use slang vocabulary that I hate, simply to make sure that young people also understand it. Disgusting.

I don’t know how I landed on your site. Serendipity I guess. Not that it matters. Your blog is very good and I will announce it to the world (at least mine)

The writing advice, that many writers and non-writers (that’s me) can really benefit from is terrific. You have a new fan for your blog.

The tone of your voice would definitely depend on what message you are trying to convey or the type of your target audience. Sometimes, it also depends on which blog are you writing for.

In my case, I make a conversational, quite informal article when I write for blogger and a bit technical/formal for wordpress.

Well said. You have good points. Very helpful. Thanks.

Great little article. People always seem surprised if I edit their work and break some grammatical rules. But in reality, it’s more important that your writing gets across your points in an easy to read and understand way…I think!
Ha. there’s at least 3!
Look forward to reading more!

I agree that certain rules of writing should be put aside if it makes reading clunky or difficult. I still find it difficult to do sometimes!

Here in Canada, many schools don’t even teach “Grammar” as such. That is a mistake!

Best,

Brian

I think whether to break or not to break teh rule depends on your client, because not all the clients really would like to see the errors or misspelled words in the texts…

I guess you might agree, Miguel, that many of the so-called ‘rules’ taught a generation ago in schools (and perhaps still taught; I don’t know), are simply not effective in the building of good, easy-to-read copy that feels like someone talking.

But I’m of the opinion that those rules are simply wrong… to give an example: beginning a sentence with the word ‘But’.

‘But’ is a very powerful word. When we read or hear that word, we give more weight to the words following it. And beginning a sentence with ‘But’ can increase that weight even more. It can also help the flow of the copy, so long as the writer has a good command of punctuation.

But… someone without a good sense of how to write well — a beginner, perhaps — would do well to pay heed to those wiggly underlines in MS Word and other programs that indicate ‘incorrect’ grammar.

Good rules have a purpose, and they are derived from what works well; what communicates well.

Bad rules exist for their own sake, and don’t necessarily help communication. Those are the ones that needn’t be heeded.

Richard Clunan

Obviously you wouldn’t want to break rules unintentionally, but I quite agree that as copywriters our main responsibility is to our client and therefore it’s about getting results for them. If breaking some rules along the way helps us do that, then so be it.