Writing – Noi Doc w/ Nam

03/07/202308/31/2023

7 Copywriting Rules I Learned From YouTube Videos

If you want to learn how to write copy, here are some tips on copywriting that I learned from watching a bunch of how-to-write videos on YouTube.

I’ve watched a lot of YouTube videos.

Some were productive and some were definitely not.

But one of the productive ones talked about the importance of keeping notes of things that you find educational or valuable or interesting (similar to keeping a commonplace book).

I thought this was interesting because I was constantly forgetting valuable things I heard in videos and had to continually go back to re-watch them and it was a big waste of time.

So, I took the advice and started to write things down. And, over many years of doing this, I have amassed a lot of notes.

And since I found value in them, I think they can be valuable for you too and I want to share some of them with you.

So, for the first edition of this (maybe series), I am going to share my notes on copywriting:

Continue reading “7 Copywriting Rules I Learned From YouTube Videos”

08/15/202208/15/2022

12 Writing Tips from My Favorite Comedians

Here are some tips on how to be a better storyteller from some of my favorite comedy writers.

I’ve always loved funny things.

Part of it is because I grew up in a big family full of jokesters. Another part of it is because my family loves comedies.

When I was a little kid, I spent a lot of time with my uncles because, like most immigrants, my parents spent most of the day working or at school.

So, after I did my 9-3 at school, I went home and my young uncles, who lived with us (also an immigrant thing), babysat me.

And one of the things they did a lot of was pranking me. They would get me to do all sorts of stupid things to satisfy their humour.

I remember one time, I was maybe 8, they made me dress up like an ancient Chinese mystic with a fake beard made of BBQ charcoal so that they could record a parody music video.

It was like they were trying to be YouTubers (way) before it was even a thing. Continue reading “12 Writing Tips from My Favorite Comedians”

05/04/202008/31/2023

What are Lazy Words and How Do You Get Rid of Them?

What are lazy words and why shouldn’t we use them in our writing?

I was watching a Tim Ferriss video the other day and the term “lazy words” came up.

Even though the topic of the video was about reading, Ferriss called himself out for using the word “interesting” to describe a book, saying it is a “lazy adjective.”

This caught my attention (yes, I know I’m a nerd for it).

I thought to myself, “What constitutes a lazy word? Are they words that have little value to a sentence and/or don’t fully describe something? What’s wrong with “interesting?”

Then, after a quick pause, Ferriss changed “interesting” to “thought-provoking.” I now had my answer.

But I was still curious.

And being the millennial that I am, I wanted gratification immediately. I went online to find a list of lazy words so that I can potentially cut some of them out of my writing. Continue reading “What are Lazy Words and How Do You Get Rid of Them?”

02/24/202008/31/2023

What is Copywriting? And Some Rules to Follow

Copywriting is basically advertisement writing. But some copy suck and some don’t. So what’s the difference?

Copywriting is, essentially, the act of writing advertisements. The goal of it is to create more awareness around a product or a service or an issue. It is also meant to persuade potential customers to take a certain action.

If you’ve read a product review, chances are there was a suggestion or button somewhere on that post that encouraged you to buy the product.

If there was, then that article was a piece of copy.

If you’ve visited a website and the page you were on talked about the company and its services and had customer testimonials, there’s a good chance there’s a button at the bottom of the page that asked you to get in contact with them.

This is a call-to-action. And that page that you were on is another example of a piece of copy. Continue reading “What is Copywriting? And Some Rules to Follow”

06/18/201808/31/2023

5 Grammar Mistakes Every Blogger Must Prevent

When it comes to writing well, grammar is a very important component. Your writing needs to be clear and readable, and grammar is the element that makes your writing just that.

But when you are a new blogger or just starting to get into writing, your grammar may not be as awesome as you would want it to be. Your sentences may be choppy or they may be fragmented. Or you may be using certain words incorrectly.

But since you are just getting back into writing, you probably don’t remember how to fix all the grammar mistakes you made. “Why didn’t I pay more attention in school when I was younger?” you probably say after proofreading your horrendous writing.

That’s the exact thing that happened to me. I recently went into my archives and checked out some of my older articles and, boy, were they hard to read. Aside from the lack of flow of the paragraphs, there were so many grammatical errors.

The mistakes ranged from incorrect word use and spelling to sentence clarity. They were absolutely terrible!

So to help out some of you newbs, here are 5 grammar rules you must know: Continue reading “5 Grammar Mistakes Every Blogger Must Prevent”

02/20/201808/31/2023

The Definitive Guide to Sentences (Structures and Types)

Curious about what the different types and structures of sentences are? Look no further -this is the only guide you need.

I was tutoring a student one day on the various types of sentences and structures of sentences.

This kid, though he was in the sixth grade, didn’t know any of the types of structures.

I was surprised because most students are supposed to learn them in the third grade.

After teaching him the different ones, I sat down and thought to myself, “When did I learn this? Did I even know about them in high school?”

I came to the realization that I probably did learn about sentences in elementary school but completely forgot them, specifically the sentence structures.

I don’t think I re-learned them or put much thought into them until I started tutoring.

After this realization, I thought to myself, “If I forgot this, others must have as well,” which led to me writing this blog post.

This post is meant to be a review of the sentence types and structures for all of you who have forgotten them (or want to learn what they are).

So in this post, I will go over:

The 4 sentence types and how to use them
The 4 sentence structures and how to use them

Continue reading “The Definitive Guide to Sentences (Structures and Types)”