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THE DIRECT MARKETING COPYWRITER'S DILEMMA
Written by: Billy SharmaArticle Overview: Writing hints
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THE DIRECT MARKETING COPYWRITER'S DILEMMA
When writing a direct mail letter many writers deliberately use contractions and punctuation because they want their letters to sound more like conservation.
Therefore, phrases like" You will" or "We will" are pared down to "You'll" or "We'll" just like in normal speech.
However, there is a hidden danger in doing that because first, contractions tire the eye. They force the reader to take into consideration the presence of a tiny apostrophe lurking in between letters and that slows reading down.
It takes almost the same amount of time to read the words in the second column as the first:
Shan't Shall not
Can't Can not
Won't Will not
Things can get more complicated with the addition of punctuation, like an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence that looks almost the same as the capital letter "I" or a lower case "l".
For example:
"Here's how!"
“Get this great new bow!"
Most readers first only skim over the letter, trying to decipher the content, so they often look at the words with a lazy eye and this can cause the words to appear other than what they are.
The word "how" with the exclamation mark coming after the word may make it look like the word "howl" and the word "bow" can be mistaken for "bowl". This often forces the reader to stop and go back and reread the passage, interrupting not only the flow but also the comprehension.
Many modern writers have also decreased the amount of punctuation in sentences, eliminating commas and hyphens to speed up readership.
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