Blog: Wordsmithery
News and views from me, Charlie Hobson, about all things Wordsmithy-related.
From copywriting and comms trends to grammar pedantry, things I’ve learned from our latest client projects to inspiring people and resources, I’ll share it here in my fairly frequent, shortish blog posts. I hope they help you get to know me better.
Will AI put me out of my copywriting job?
The pros and cons of using AI for content generation, from a copywriter's perspective Everyone's NOT talking about Jamie at the moment (unless Jamie is the latest AI chatbot.) So many conversations in the marketing and comms teams where I usually work are now about AI...
Another way to obsess over words: meet el búho!
Forming bad habits is all too easy, in my world at least. So I'm very pleased that a relatively recent obsession is neither illegal, immoral nor fattening (as Alexander Woollcott once remarked) and in fact is virtuously helping me keep my mind agile and increase my...
Original copy matters for SEO
Googling can be a vexatious business If you’ve searched for consumer products of any kind on the web lately you will probably have experienced frustration from crafty SEO manipulation that produces pages that are only tangentially relevant to your search. Or they may...
11 etiquette tips for on-the-go business text and email
We're all used to communicating by text with our mobile devices. So many professional emails and messages go from an iPhone, iPad or Android device. According to The Tech Report, 35% of professionals respond to emails on their mobiles. I'm surprised it's not more....
Happy Christmas and New Year to all
Mornings look different these days
Yesterday I stumbled over this poem (enlarged text below!) about the tyranny of mornings. In the winter darkness that's descending as we head to the shortest day, much of it feels relatable as I write at 7am! But some aspects are less familiar. Briefcase? Commute?...
A word in support of Refuge
The Wordsmithy has made a Christmas contribution to Refuge in lieu of sending corporate Christmas cards.With lockdown constraining people's movements so much in 2020 and confining couples and families to a single space, life has become more difficult and dangerous for...
My 2020 thesaurus overload is “unprecedented”
My 2020 thesaurus overload is “unprecedented” Words of the year and what they mean to me It has been a joy for me to read Words of an Unprecedented Year, the Oxford Languages lexical round-up of 2020. Usually, this would guide us to a single Word of the Year. But...
What do you make of cryptic crosswords?
What do you make of cryptic crosswords? Amundsen’s forwarding address* or a big heart?** I love cryptic crosswords. In my early teens, my mum often used to encourage me to help her tackle the Observer Everyman crossword on a Sunday. Initially I was baffled and...