Try telling Noah he can't cartwheel

One of the reasons I love this job is that I learn so much about writing. Mainly from suits who LOVE to give me pointers on my copy!

The other day, as one suity-wordsmith breezily handed me her improvements to an email, having inserted the word ‘great’ eight times and turned the subject header into a 17-word tour de force, this image popped into my head – my two-year-old nephew, Noah, teaching his peers how to cartwheel.



Look at his face as he gets up.

‘Now THAT is how you cartwheel, you shmucks’ he’s thinking.

And, depressingly, that same expression was writ large across my colleague’s face as she handed me the amends.

“Now THAT is how you write copy, Mr Realmenwritelongcopy”.



So please just bear this in mind next time you see a fault with someone's cartwheel.

Do not try to cartwheel for them. For you may very well cartwheel like a two-year-old.