Copywriting: Drafting Rules for Professionals
By Dina Giolitto

As a professional contractor who wears many hats, you owe it to yourself and your clients to be as organized as possible. In a previous article, I discussed the importance of delivering an organized draft that your co-creators can easily work from. Following are some suggestions for freelance copywriters who wish to streamline their copy submission process and ensure a crisp, clean draft every time.

General Copy Drafting Rules

1. Do not deviate from the standard fonts, Arial or Times New Roman, 10 or 12 point.

2. Submit all copy with ONE SPACE after a period, NOT TWO.

3. Save all copy drafts as a Word document.

4. Make sure that SMART QUOTES and all "autoformatting" is shut off before typing your copy into a fresh Word document. That means NO auto indents, NO auto bullets, NO fraction symbols, etc.

5. Use BOLD, ITALIC or UNDERLINE where necessary. You may also html tag these as so < b > bold < /b > if the client has requested it.

6. Every draft should be spellchecked by computer and by eyeball.

Setting Up Your Copy Draft

Develop a Standard Copy Draft Template. Use this template to set up each initial copy draft you create. Be sure to include the following:

A Header that lists:

1. The client's name or company name
2. The author (your name)
3. Today's date
4. Project description
5. Draft Number

A Footer that includes the page number.

(To add page numbers, go the top menu and click INSERT and then PAGE NUMBERS.)

When creating a new document, follow the drafting process as outlined below.

1. Open up the Copy Draft Template on your desktop
2. Immediately do a Save-As and rename the document as follows:

XXX_descrip_draftX

In this naming conventention, the three Xs represent the first three letters of the client's company name. The label "descrip" should be replaced by a qualifier. "DraftX" will be the draft number.