Copywriting Blog

The Hired Pens gets props from Green Cotton

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Thanks to Shana Yansen who owns Jute & Jackfruit, an up-and-coming organic and sustainable clothing and accessory company for women, for giving us a plug in her latest blog entry about Down:2:Earth. Of particular interest to Eco-Fashion Gurus will be the two Eco-Fashion Shows to take place throughout the weekend: one at 4:30 on Saturday April 4, 2009 […]

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Searching for Readability Through the Fog

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Anyone who writes for a living has to be conscious of readability. Or at least anyone who writes for marketing and/or advertising purposes. Since becoming a professional writer, I’ve taken pride in keeping things readable. Reining in long sentences and paragraphs. Avoiding complex words. Adopting a friendly, conversational tone. After so many years of writing, […]

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What this Hired Pen does when she’s not writing

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She has an art show … and writes about herself in the third person. The Somerville Journal wrote a nice article about the show so you can read all about it here or just come by True Grounds and see it for yourself.

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Introducing The Hired Pens Productions

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That’s right, The Hired Pens is now writing, shooting, editing and producing Web spots. Why? We wanted to add a little BOOM to our life of nouns and verbs. (Get it, boom?! If you were also making Web spots, you would.)  Read all about our new venture and watch our latest videos here. Or, if you […]

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The Brilliant Seth MacFarlane

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I typed “The Brilliant Seth MacFarlane” into my search engine and 11,000 entries came up. So how brilliant is the creator of Fox’s hit show Family Guy? Not yet 40 and still looking like he’s about 15, MacFarlane is the highest-paid television writer in Hollywood. But is this what makes him brilliant? No. It’s the […]

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Feeling Over-Stimulated

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This morning I drove by my neighborhood Mexican restaurant to see their marquee now reads: “Our Stimulus Package: Buy One Lunch, Get a Second for Half Off.” A minute later on the radio, some car company was advertising “our version of the stimulus package.” And when I arrived at my destination, I saw a store […]

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Ads That Obsess Us: Amish Electric Fireplaces

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As I recently skimmed Parade magazine (learning about “the world’s top 10 worst dictators”), the headline immediately caught my eye: “Amish mantle and miracle invention help home heat bills hit rock bottom.” Of the several dozen items I find fascinating, the Amish and miracle inventions are near the top of the list. Now, here was […]

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Dear “Awesome Children”: The Use and Misuse of Quotation Marks

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In our recent Hired Pens commercial, “Graham R.” takes us on a trip to his neighborhood Chicken Shack to explain the problems that can arise from the misuse of quotation marks. The commercial got a big response, including some funny real-life examples. None was better than this card a friend of ours received:  Dear “Awesome […]

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My Bet for 2009 Word of the Year

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Most word nuts know Merriam-Webster named “bailout” its 2008 Word of the Year (for obvious reasons). I’ve got a leading contender for this year’s honor: transparency.   When I was growing up, I associated transparency with ghosts — usually the friendly kind. After I gave up cartoons, I learned a more negative connotation for the word. […]

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How Waitressing Made Me a Better Business Person

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An interesting topic popped up at a recent dinner party I attended: What was your worst job ever? While my summer as a waitress didn’t beat dodging bricks at the city works department, “refereeing” parents at children’s soccer games, or suffering repeated burns from an industrial-sized dishwasher, nothing has been more valuable. No, not for […]

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