Social, email and editing, plus building your portfolio

Social media copy

• Hook in the first line (before "…more").
• Match the platform: LinkedIn (professional, story-driven, line breaks), Instagram (caption supports the visual, hashtags in moderation), X (concise, conversational), YouTube (titles and descriptions with keywords).
• Write in the brand voice; include a clear CTA (comment, save, share, link in bio).

Email copy

• Subject line: specific and benefit-led, around 30–50 characters; preview text that adds to it.
• One goal per email; short paragraphs; a single prominent CTA.
• Personalise beyond the first name: refer to their behaviour or interests.
• Test subject lines (A/B) and learn from click rates.

Brand voice and style guides

A voice is the brand's consistent personality (friendly, expert, playful, reassuring); tone adapts to context (celebratory for an offer letter email, calm and clear for an error message). Style guides (or AP/Chicago and in-house rules) define spelling, capitalisation, numbers, Oxford comma, inclusive language and formatting. Consistency builds trust.

Editing and proofreading

Edit in passes:

1. Structural: does the piece deliver on its promise? Is the order logical? Cut sections that don't serve the reader.
2. Line edit: clarity, flow, word choice, sentence length, cutting 10–20% of words.
3. Copy edit: grammar, consistency, style guide.
4. Proofread: typos, links, names, numbers, formatting. Read aloud, change the font or print it to see it fresh.

Common errors to check: its/it's, your/you're, affect/effect, subject-verb agreement, dangling modifiers, inconsistent tense, and number formatting.

Your portfolio and writing tests

• 5–8 strong samples covering what you want to be hired for (blogs, SEO articles, landing pages, social posts, emails, technical docs, UX copy).
• Each with context: the brief, audience, goal and results if known (traffic, rankings, conversions).
• Publish on a personal site, Medium, LinkedIn articles or Google Drive with clean formatting.
• Spec work is fine: rewrite a real company's landing page and explain your choices.
• Writing tests: read the brief twice, ask clarifying questions, research properly, follow the requested format and word count exactly, submit before the deadline, and proofread twice. Following instructions precisely is part of the test.

Check yourself

• Write a LinkedIn post announcing a new internship programme in under 120 words.
• Edit this sentence: "Due to the fact that the deadline is very soon, it is important that all applicants should submit there applications in a timely manner."
• What would you include in a writing portfolio for a SaaS company?