Those dark, bleak days are behind you, gentle reader, but I would not doubt that the mere mention of these words create a sense of deep anxiety, even now.

Well, pull yourself together, you are all grown up  and in order to make it out there you need to learn to LOVE those dreaded “parts of speech”. They are, after all, the spanner set in your writer’s toolbox.

And so, without any further blathering, I present with pride the most important parts of speech you will ever use:

THE NOUN

These are naming words and you get a variety of nouns: common nouns, proper nouns and collective nouns.

Common Nouns:

Common nouns are naming words such as albatross, pen, grape or car. Common nouns can be singular or plural.

Proper Nouns:

Proper nouns are names and usually start with capital letters e.g. Mark, Heidelberg and North Vietnam.

Collective Nouns:

Nouns which refer to groups or collections of things are known as collective nouns e.g. a murder of crows, a flock of seagulls or a gaggle of school girls.

THE VERB

Verbs are the action words – they express a state of being or a particular activity

e.g. Jesus wept, Barry stubbed his toe, Michelle ate hurriedly

THE PRONOUN

A pronoun substitutes for a noun. The phrase that the pronoun replaces is called the antecedent.

e.g. he, she, it, they, we, our

An interrogative pronoun replaces an item used in a question e.g. who

There are many types of pronouns.

THE ADJECTIVE

It’s time to get descriptive! Adjectives are describing words and go hand in hand with NOUNS.

e.g. red apple, happy baby, boring class and juvenile delinquent.

THE ADVERB

If you want to describe a particular action you would use an adverb. Adverb’s tell us more about how an action was performed.

e.g. danced gracefully, ate messily, jumped high, cried aloud

THE PREPOSITION

Prepositions are those little words that keep things flowing and hold it all together. Prepositions often describe direction or location.

e.g. onto, beside, near, above, below, against, beyond

These are the basics in terms of the parts of speech you should know as an English speaker. You can of course delve deeper into the fascinating world of parts of speech by reading great grammar books or websites.

Your headline needs to sell the rest of your article – and you have mere milliseconds to grab attention.

Copywriters have always known that a good headlines is the key to getting their work read. Like the subject line of an email, it is the headline that does most of the work yet so few time is usually spent on the headline.

Clients and managers put great pressure on writers to get copy written quickly and this results in the headline being written very quickly without much thought.

Tips to make sure you write the best possible headline in the quickest time:

• Use direct headlines: straight to the point, plain language and e.g. 30% off Winter socks
• Indirect headlines will initiate inquiry in the reader’s mind e.g. Google goes fishing
• “How to…”, “What is…” – these types of headlines are very effective
• Ask a question in the headline to get the reader involved e.g. Do you want to make a pile of cash?
• Action headlines ask the reader to take action e.g. Take control of your personal finance today!
• Using the name of a celebrity in the headline adds a testimonial-like element e.g. Steve Jobs agrees that  Hot Copy is a fantastic read
• Numbered lists are also effective e.g. 12 reasons why you have to read Hot Copy every day