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    • Learn How To Write Conversationally To Engage Your Audience
    • Top Skills for a Copywriter
    • Launch A Career In Advertising With These Top Portfolio Schools
    • UX Copywriting and Short Copy ​
    • Discover How To Write Killer Copy That Converts
    • What is Copywriting?
    • 10 Great Headlines from Classic Ads
    • Why Tone Can Make or Break Your Copy
    • How to Use Statistics, Facts and Quotes to Craft Compelling Copy
    • Great Copywriters Use Verbal Imagery to Tell a Story
    • Master the Art of Headline Writing!
    • Here’s How to Get Portfolio-Building Copywriting Gigs
    • What Volkswagen’s ’Think Small’ Teaches Copywriters
    • 5 Brands with Amazing Copywriting Teams
    • Master Hard and Soft CTAs for Superior Sales Writing
    • The Ultimate Checklist for Blog Copywriters
    • 10 Mistakes Even Experienced Copywriters Make
    • Read These 4 Books to Become a Better Copywriter
    • Sales Writing: How to Create Attention Grabbing Headlines
    • How to Create Persuasive Sales Copy
    • Proven Copywriting Methods Emotional Advertising
    • How to Write Good Copy : Preparation Techniques
    • Copywriting Secrets: 8 Powerful Ways to Add Proof and Credibility
    • Copywriting Cheat Sheet: Write Powerful Copy Quickly and Easily
    • Copywriting Insights: How to Test Ad Copy for Best Results
    • Write Effective Ad Copy: No Fail Secrets and Tips
    • What Never to Do When Writing Compelling Copy for Sales
    • How to Write Copy That Sells – Use Benefits
    • 6 Ways to Improve Your Copy Immediately
    • A Day in the Life of a Copywriter
    • Coffee, Copywriting, and Freedom
    • Copy is Everywhere
    • Direct Response Copy Sells
    • The Pros and Cons of Copywriting Part–Time
    • Three Tips to Write Copy that Converts
    • Two of the Biggest Mistakes Beginning Copywriters Make
    • Why Copywriting Makes a Great Second Career
    • Why I Love Being a Copywriter
    • Landing Pages that Work - Copy that Converts

6 Ways to Improve Your Copy Immediately

There are a few ‘tricks of the trade’ that will enable you to quickly clean up your copy and make it snappier, fresher, more concise with better flow. Sound good?

Keep your sentences short and to the point. Keep your paragraphs short, creating a fair amount of white space in your document. White space makes your piece more approachable.

Readers scan documents before reading and dense copy can cause them to put your copy aside for later – the kiss of marketing death. Some writers like to include two spaces between sentences. The two spaces have the same effect of adding more white space and making a piece easier on the eye.


Look for the word ‘that’. It can almost always be removed, as can the words surrounding it to create a tighter idea and a shorter sentence.

​Try reading sentences aloud and you’ll find a new perspective on what works, what you can cut and what should stay. Just eliminating use of ‘that’ will tighten up your writing nicely.


Be specific. When you use the word it, describe what ‘it’ is replacing and you’ll have more interesting copy that is easier to understand. Specificity brings clarity.

Use your verbs wisely. Verbs are the heartbeat of your sentence. They are, of course, where the action is. Use descriptive verbs that create images in the mind of your reader. Instead of saying he walked slowly down the street, say: he ambled down the street as if he had all the time in the world. Do you see the difference? What does each conjure in your minds’ eye?

Find a reliable writer to read your work and critique it. So often you’ll have the bones of a piece and it just isn’t flowing quite right. Your writing buddy can say: well, if you moved the top to the bottom and stopped telling the story after you include the personal part about…..and voila, you have a piece that’s near completion. Often you can’t see the obvious in something you’ve spent a lot of time on. Fresh eyes work wonders.

Finally, kill your darlings. We all come up with great turns of phrase every now and then and we keep them in a piece even though they aren’t necessary. I almost never write a piece where I don’t get ‘married’ to one or two great sentences. Very often, clever as they are – they need to go!

A good writing partner can help you cut those darlings out of your copy. Trust me; it can be very hard to do yourself.

Want to learn the techniques, tools and ‘tricks’ for writing great copy? Check out our in-depth online course: Mastering Direct Response Copywriting.
“SFSC’s Boot Camp course delivers everything their ad promises. If you want to write better copy, learn more about marketing strategy, add fire to your business skills or just look for new freelance opportunities, this is positively the class for you. I will definitely consider another course with SFSC.”
Pamela Dyson Pierre – Oakland, CA (Author/ Writer)

​“I highly recommend the Copywriting Boot Camp 6-week intensive class offered by San Francisco School of Copywriting (SFSC)."
Karen Williams Macdonald (Marketing Consultant / Freelance Writer)

Join the SFSC Community

  • Home
  • Courses
    • Copywriting 101 Online
    • Copywriting 201 Online
    • Direct Response Copywriting
    • 360 Copywriting Online
    • 360 Copywriting - Live Class
    • Comedy Writing
  • Free
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
  • BLOG
    • Learn How To Write Conversationally To Engage Your Audience
    • Top Skills for a Copywriter
    • Launch A Career In Advertising With These Top Portfolio Schools
    • UX Copywriting and Short Copy ​
    • Discover How To Write Killer Copy That Converts
    • What is Copywriting?
    • 10 Great Headlines from Classic Ads
    • Why Tone Can Make or Break Your Copy
    • How to Use Statistics, Facts and Quotes to Craft Compelling Copy
    • Great Copywriters Use Verbal Imagery to Tell a Story
    • Master the Art of Headline Writing!
    • Here’s How to Get Portfolio-Building Copywriting Gigs
    • What Volkswagen’s ’Think Small’ Teaches Copywriters
    • 5 Brands with Amazing Copywriting Teams
    • Master Hard and Soft CTAs for Superior Sales Writing
    • The Ultimate Checklist for Blog Copywriters
    • 10 Mistakes Even Experienced Copywriters Make
    • Read These 4 Books to Become a Better Copywriter
    • Sales Writing: How to Create Attention Grabbing Headlines
    • How to Create Persuasive Sales Copy
    • Proven Copywriting Methods Emotional Advertising
    • How to Write Good Copy : Preparation Techniques
    • Copywriting Secrets: 8 Powerful Ways to Add Proof and Credibility
    • Copywriting Cheat Sheet: Write Powerful Copy Quickly and Easily
    • Copywriting Insights: How to Test Ad Copy for Best Results
    • Write Effective Ad Copy: No Fail Secrets and Tips
    • What Never to Do When Writing Compelling Copy for Sales
    • How to Write Copy That Sells – Use Benefits
    • 6 Ways to Improve Your Copy Immediately
    • A Day in the Life of a Copywriter
    • Coffee, Copywriting, and Freedom
    • Copy is Everywhere
    • Direct Response Copy Sells
    • The Pros and Cons of Copywriting Part–Time
    • Three Tips to Write Copy that Converts
    • Two of the Biggest Mistakes Beginning Copywriters Make
    • Why Copywriting Makes a Great Second Career
    • Why I Love Being a Copywriter
    • Landing Pages that Work - Copy that Converts