Some might argue that a copywriter is the glue that holds most advertising campaigns together. Ironically, it’s us copywriters who are most likely to argue this point. Nonetheless, there is some truth to this claim.

Source: Flick.com

The copywriter is responsible for turning an idea into words; making it legible and comprehensible. As much as a picture can speak a thousand words, one word can completely alter the dynamic of a picture.

What we do is pretty important and it isn’t as straightforward as everyone thinks. “What? You just write for a living?” Yes, we write. And it takes time, patience and a whole lot of enthusiasm to get it “write”.

Here is a small collection of things you might not know about copywriters.

1. I’m sorry, who are you?

As copywriters, we tend to fall to the bottom of the “creative food chain”; after all, we’re just glorified typists, right? Wrong. Copywriters have feelings too. We’ve earned our spot in the Creative Hall of Fame and we’re an integral part of agency life!

A simple sweep of beautiful words sprinkled across a dying campaign can take it from bad to badtastic! It takes more than just any old person with an ability to speak English to do that. We also have the poetic license to make up words like “badtastic”.

2. Identifying a copywriter

Generally, we’re those people sitting in the corner – the ones that you’re always telling to “type more quietly”. We’ve usually got thesaurus.com and dictionary.com open in our browsers and have a deep understanding of the intricacies of Microsoft Word.

3. We’re experts on everything! Not really…

Contrary to popular belief, we don’t know everything and research is sometimes required in order to offer a professional view on a given subject. It’s often (read: almost always) assumed that we can swiftly and effortlessly whip up a 500-word page of SEO web content surrounding “The top 5 uses for a hair dryer other than for drying your hair”, or some such topic. What we do takes time.

4. We secretly analyse all words we come into contact with

Your PowerPoint presentation is never safe from the analytical eyes of a copywriter. Make sure your “loose” and “lose” or “advice” and “advise” are not confused to save yourself from severe judgment cast down upon you from a copywriter’s perspective.

5. We’re copywriters, not copyspeakers

As much as we profess to be experts in our field, our expertise lies in the sphere of written words and not those that spew from our mouths. 8 times out of 10, you’ll find that a copywriter struggles to find the words to express themselves verbally. Perhaps it’s because we’re usually too wrapped up in writing to ever feel the need to speak without IM.

While we’re not complete hermits, living behind our laptop screens, we’re definitely inclined to over-use words such as “like”, “yo” and “dude”… even though the last two are possibly not to be found in the dictionary. Please don’t judge us for this, even though we might judge you for using them yourselves.

Footnote: Please note, this blog post does not reflect the true nature of all copywriters. Possibly not even all the copywriters at Quirk... maybe just one?

Do you have your own little hidden secrets? Feel free to share them on our open forum.