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I recently read a blog post that talks about "Web Copy".

I have never heard of this term before, so I did some searching around. I'm still not sure what the meaning of this is.

What bugs me is that everyone who uses it refers to it without the use of an indefinite or definite article before. For example, in the blog post mentioned, the author says "How do you learn to write web copy?" instead of "How do you learn to write a web copy?". Other places use it in this 'proper noun' usage (though it isn't capitalized).

Can someone please define the term and explain why there is no article?

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Copy is jargon in the editing/writing industry for the written word (text) - consider the word copywriter.

Web copy is therefore verbiage written specifically for use on the web.

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  • So as Hard Copy is to paper, Web Copy is to a web page? That seems to fit, but why use it without an indefinite article? I would say "Print out a hard copy for me", so why would people say "Write web copy for me"?
    – Stephen S
    Commented Dec 6, 2013 at 21:18
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    "I write copy", "I wrote some copy", etc. It is not the same meaning as "I made a copy" or "I read the copy of the text". These latter 2 mean a duplicate, the meaning you are after just means writing or text.
    – Brad
    Commented Dec 6, 2013 at 21:20
  • I didn't know that was a meaning of "copy". As I'm not a writer (or English major), my vocabulary is likely not as large as others on this site. I figured the word "copy" was always synonymous with "duplicate", and I didn't think to look for other definitions.
    – Stephen S
    Commented Dec 6, 2013 at 21:25
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    See definition 3 here: merriam-webster.com/dictionary/copy
    – Brad
    Commented Dec 6, 2013 at 21:26

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