I'm from an academic background (and still there, teaching college Communication and English classes). The shift to copywriting is quite similar and, in some ways, radically different.

Professors on the whole (some English professors in particular) seem to relish the brilliance that oozes out onto the pages of their dissertations and journal publications. They never really pay any mind to, um, the readability of the damned things. Or the relevance to the real world. They assume that "Neo-feminist interpretations of Milton's use of the split infinitive" will appeal to everyone.

I teach in this world, and it's refreshing to see a field (i.e. copywriters) who look only at the results. Very pragmatic, very realistic. The Communication field (in which I also teach) is also very practical (at least some of them are). One brilliant professor I had in grad school, Dr. John Courtright, said something we could all relate to and which the English professors of the world (exceptions exist, to be sure) would abhor. Courtright was asked in one of our classes if "attitude" and vague terms like that represent real, physical places within the human brain. He said something to the effect of: "As long as those terms allow me to predict human behavior, I don't care." Very fitting for this field, too.

How has your past work life (or current alternate, in my case) meshed with the attitude needed to succeed as a business writer?

Alex Stiner