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If a Copywriter produces several articles for printing, what are his works collectively known as?

I feel the answer is not copies as this would indicate it is several articles reproduced from an original.

I wonder if it might be copy, a bit like how data is plural?

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"... a bit like how data is plural", not so. Copy is not plural here. It is the term for the body of writing as a whole -- which may consist of one or more pieces. – Kris Oct 29 '12 at 15:07

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up vote 4 down vote

Your intuition is correct. When used to mean 'material for printing', copy refers to any number of works (even if it's just a single one). Note that you would also not refer to it as a copy as in:

I wrote a copy for the magazine.

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+1: Exactly. "Copy" is a word like water. You can measure the amount of copy you write just as you can measure the amount of water you drink. You can drink, say, two glasses of water or a whole gallon just as you can write 15 or 3,000 words of copy. But however much you write, it's all just copy. – Robusto Jan 25 '11 at 15:29
@Robusto - I like the comparison to fluids. I'll be sure to steal that for similar examples in the future =D – Dusty Jan 25 '11 at 17:55
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+1, good answer! One suggestion: when quoting an incorrect usage like you do here, it’s customary to prefix it with a star, eg *This sentence ungrammatical. so that it’s less likely to be mistaken as an example of correct usage. – PLL Jan 25 '11 at 20:16
up vote 0 down vote

"I wrote many sales letters today". Why would it be "I wrote many sales copy today"? They mean the same thing.

I have many copies of her book.

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the 'copy' of a copywriter and 'copies of' a written work - are different concepts. – NewAlexandria Oct 29 '12 at 15:36

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