Jennifer Willoughby

Copywriting is a dream job I lucked into. Both copywriting and poetry use compressed language to create an emotional response in an audience, and their toolboxes are remarkably similar. Slant rhyme, overt rhyme, alliteration, musicality, vivid imagery, and unexpected or surprising comparisons are a few shared traits. Both are in tune with the zeitgeist. One driver of successful advertising is its ability to create an identifiable moment that seems unforced, and to do that you have to put yourself in the shoes of other people and see how they view the situation. It’s a good thing to practice, for life and writing. As a freelance copywriter, I write about anything—babies, apps, cosmetics, the aging process—often things I know little about. So I am always researching new things and dreaming up voices or copy styles that will hook the audience. That process of trying on, discarding, or refining various voices happens in all kinds of writing. [Read more on the University of Minnesota’s English Department website]