Consider these sentences:

1. He gave the money to John and I.

2. He gave the money to John and myself.

3. He gave the money to John and me.

Which of these constructions is correct? The third. Which is most commonly used? I suspect that, frustratingly, it’s a close run thing between the first and second.

Here’s a quick explanation of the rules:

Subjective personal pronouns

These are I, we, you, she, they, he, and it. They’re deployed when the pronoun is the subject of the verb. For example:

I went to the cinema.

He ate some cake.

They worked hard.

Objective personal pronouns

These are me, us, you, her, him them, and it. They’re used when the pronoun is the target of the verb. For example:

He gave the present to me.

They wished us well.

He gave her a drink.

Reflexive personal pronouns

These are myself, ourselves, yourself, yourselves, himself, herself, itself, oneself, and themselves. Generally, they’re correctly used in two situations:

1. Reflexively – when the object and the subject of the sentence are the same. For instance: I burnt myself on the iron. Here, the object and subject are the same person (me), so it’s right to use ‘myself’.
2. For emphasis. For example: Adam said he’d complete his tax return himself. The sentence would be complete without the reflexive pronoun, but its addition emphasises that Adam won’t be giving his tax return to anyone else to do.

There seems to be a growing acceptance of the use of reflexive pronouns in place of objective personal pronouns. But you won’t catch me doing it.

Why the confusion?

First, let’s look at I vs me.

“It’s Jane and I, Sarah, not Jane and me.” Do these words sound familiar? If so, you’re not alone. I’m betting that, during our primary school years, most of us were rebuked at least once for the misuse of the objective personal pronoun. So is it any wonder that it causes so much confusion in adult life?

If the sentence that incited the reproach had been “Me and Jane are going out to play”, then fair enough. The reordering of the subjects (me and Jane) is a matter of manners, the replacement of me with I one of grammatical correctness.

But, for some, the fear instilled by the educators of their youth was obviously too great. These people have developed a lifelong aversion to the word me. They utter sentences such as:

Give the money to Tim and I.

James invited John and I to his party.

In both cases, me is the correct pronoun to use. And if you’re ever in any doubt, there’s a simple way of checking. Just remove the other person from the sentence, and see if it still makes sense. Applying this to the examples above, we’d be left with “Give the money to I” and “James invited I to his party”. Enough said.

As for those reflexive pronouns: I think some people just can’t resist the extra syllable. Perhaps they think it sounds more educated, more elegant, than plain old you or me. Call me a bore, but I don’t agree.

First and foremost, there are our clients. Without them, the Writing Hut would be… well, pretty cold and empty. Then there are our associates – the people who have embraced us as part of their team, and with whom we’ve developed fantastic working relationships. And last but certainly not least, there’s the work we’ve carried out. It’s been varied, educative and stimulating – and we’ve enjoyed every single bit of it.

Name a subject, and the chances are that we’ve written about it over the past year. We’ve crafted copy about tea, accountancy and payment cards. We’ve written about health and safety, cars, quarrying and cheese. We’ve created content about graffiti removal, GRP cabinets, waiter-call systems and furniture. We’ve even tackled sex, drugs and alcohol. And, believe it or not, we’ve written about someone whose job it is to predict the future.

The sentences we have constructed now find their home in advertorials, newsletters, blogs, direct mailings, brochures, leaflets, and website pages. We have also written for consumer magazines and the national media, and edited a broadsheet supplement.

To add a touch of glamour, Tim’s commentated at a motor show, lectured at Westminster Abbey, had a beer in the Houses of Parliament and breakfasted on the 38^th floor of the Gherkin. He’s met Kevin McCloud, interviewed Monty Halls and Robert Llewellyn, and driven a prototype electric supercar.

So, as you can see, it’s been an exciting year for the Writing Hut. But, without the support of our clients, partners and friends, none of this would have been possible. That’s why we’d like to take this chance to say a huge ‘thank you’ to everyone involved. You know who you are, and it’s been an honour to work with you.

The opening paragraph of a clothing catalogue.

1. The possessive form of it doesn’t require an apostrophe

2. Even if it did, it would be in the wrong place

Perhaps it’s actually a comma that’s escaped from elsewhere in this under-punctuated copy…

Sounds good, doesn’t it? A car that’s packed with features, and sure to appeal to anyone in the market for a 4×4.

But, as it stands, this copy is unlikely to make Terrain Explorer’s order books swell. Why? Because it describes the features of the vehicle, rather than its benefits. In other words, it tells you what the car has, rather than what it does.

Features tell, benefits sell

When it comes to sales copywriting, it is the benefits that matter. They tell your prospective customer what a product or service will do for them, and why they should invest in it.

Take the example of the Terrain Explorer:

• Its 2.5-litre diesel engine makes it powerful, yet more economical than a petrol model. So it will get up to speed easily, and won’t cost the earth to run
• Its airbags, side-impact protection and ABS make it safe. This gives you peace of mind
• Its six-speed gearbox helps with fuel economy. This keeps running costs down, and your wallet fuller
• Its seven-seat design makes it spacious, which means there’s plenty of room for the whole family
• Its leather interior and climate control make it comfortable. This makes for an enjoyable ride
• Its 4×4 capabilities make it reliable off-road, and in extremes of weather. So, it won’t let you down

Now imagine that the Terrain Explorer is being targeted at young families, whose main concerns might be safety, space, economy and reliability. These are the benefits to focus on in the sales copy, which might read something like this:

A safehaven for your precious cargo

Fill the Terrain Explorer with your loved ones, and trust it to get you safely from A to B. Its economical 2.5 turbo diesel engine spirits you effortlessly to your destination, without breaking the bank. And, with seven seats, there is space for everyone to enjoy the ride.

Visit our showroom, to make the Terrain Explorer the latest addition to your family.

Now this car sounds ideal. Just a shame that it’s a figment of my imagination…

To redress the balance, here’s a quick rule of thumb that will help you remember which to use, and when:

Use ‘less’ with singular nouns, and ‘fewer’ with plural nouns. (Or, use ‘fewer’ for things you can count, and ‘less’ for things you can’t count.)

Examples:

“There are fewer people in the pub tonight”

“You should eat fewer biscuits”

“She makes fewer mistakes than me”

“He has drunk less beer than me”

“There is less water in the bath”

“There is less milk in the bottle”

“There is less sugar in the jar”

Remember that expressions of amount, distance and time can also confuse things, with phrases such as “we paid less than £500 for our car”, “we’re less than 20 miles away” and “we’ll be there in less than four hours” being perfectly correct. This is because, in each case, the plural sums function as a singular unit. We don’t regard £500 as a collection of £500 individual pounds, but rather as one sum of money. Similarly, 20 miles is regarded as one total distance, and four hours a singular period of time.

So next time you’re tempted to use the word ‘less’, stop and think for a moment – ‘fewer’ just might be the better choice.

I started working as a journalist in the mid-90s. Back then, the magazines and newspapers I worked on were crammed full of adverts that businesses placed in the hope of reaching customers.

The model was simple: journalists like me would produce news and features of sufficient interest to the general public that they would buy our publication. Our ad sales teams would then sell advertising space on the back of the popularity of our content, and focus on potential advertisers who might be particularly interested in a given subject matter.

To give an example: if I wrote a piece about tyres for 4x4s, the ad sales guys would make a special effort to call tyre suppliers, in the hope that they would buy ad space near to my feature. Readers who looked at my feature because they were in the market for some new tyres would then have details of potential suppliers right under their noses.

Although this model remains at the heart of most print publications, it’s under threat. Advertisers have always realised that such an approach is rather hit and miss, and there’s no reliable way to measure the return on their investment.

With the advent of social media, there is a real alternative. Rather than using traditional media outlets as a means of raising brand awareness, businesses can now go to their customers direct. Well-placed blogs, timely tweets and an active Facebook page all play their part in enabling businesses to communicate with their customers without the need for an intermediary.

Of course, this relies on businesses generating content that is genuinely interesting – and, preferably, not too salesy. And that means, for an old-school journalist like me, the skills I learnt back in the 90s retain their commercial value.

Because if businesses are serious about generating online content that will engage readers, who might then become customers, they need it to be written by people who have a feel for how to communicate with the general public. And that is the most important skill a journalist possesses – namely, the ability to become attuned to their readers, and generate content that will interest them.

So the new journalism involves producing content that is commissioned by businesses who want to reach their customers direct, rather than relying on the traditional ad sales model. In other words, it cuts out the middle man – with journalists working for commercial clients, rather than being employed or commissioned by publishers.

The new journalism model has weaknesses. It raises questions about the objectivity that has been a traditional hallmark of good journalism. And it doesn’t allow for the fact that for many people (me included) there’s nothing to compare to holding a magazine in your hands and flicking through its pages.

But if we think of the new journalism as a complement to, rather than a substitute for, the traditional model, it definitely gives businesses pause for thought when thinking about how to allocate their marketing spend.

One supermarket’s not-so-super copywriting

To kick it all off, we thought we’d start with a blog about… blogging.

If you run a business, why should you include a blog as part of your marketing strategy? Is it really worth the investment of time and effort?

We think so, and here’s why:

1.     A blog builds your profile, and raises awareness of your brand. It’s easily shared – and, if it’s well-written and entertaining, people will want to share it

2.     Search engines love a good blog. Fresh, regularly-updated content can do wonders for your website’s natural search engine rankings

3.     It’s the perfect excuse for a bit of SEO copywriting. Identify the keywords and phrases that your audience is searching for, and weave these into your blog. It’s yet another way for people to find you online

4.     A blog helps you keep up with your competitors. And if your competitors aren’t blogging yet, it makes you stand out from the crowd

5.     Thought leadership: a blog enables you to demonstrate your industry expertise. You’ve got the knowledge, so why not share it to your advantage?

6.     A blog breaks down barriers. As it tends to be conversational in tone, a blog gives your business a human face. This gives an impression of transparency, and approachability

7.     It’s free*. If you have a limited budget (and, let’s face it, who doesn’t?), it’s a great way of gaining widespread publicity for your business

8.     A blog engages your readers. Invite people to share their views on what you’ve written, or give feedback on a new product or service. And value the negative comments as well as the positive ones – they show engagement, and you can often use them to your benefit

9.     A blog never stops working for you. Once you’ve published it, it stays there in the background – gaining a readership, and promoting your business, while you get on with other things

10.  It keeps you in touch with your clients. An informative, interesting blog will keep you at the forefront of your clients’ minds, in a way that’s time-efficient. It will also keep them reminded of the products or services you offer

11.  A blog provides a ready-made audience when you launch a new product or service, or have some news to announce

12.  Its success is easily measurable. Just keep an eye on your website analytics. It’s as simple as that.

*That’s if you write it yourself. If you’re lacking time or inspiration, though, our blog writers can help you out

Do you blog? And has it made a difference to your business? We’d love to hear your experiences…