A copy chop example Sam...

I don't think you can use "chop" in this context - just "chops" (short for "choppers", I think... aka teeth).

I think it comes from the phrase "cutting your teeth on"... once you've cut your teeth, you've honed your chops.

At least that's what I was told back in my muso days.

To answer the question... "chops" means "skills"... usually flashy and/or technical in nature.

In music, that equates to being really quickly or being able to play super-high or something (especially if you're a trumpet player, where the higher frequency you get, the bigger musical wang you obviously have).

With copy... I dunno. Writing really "flashy" sentences? Coming up with killer hooks? Not really sure.

-Daniel

I saw Hans fly-kick a grizzly bear once.

Since then I've made it a point not to piss that dude off.

-Daniel

Maybe it's me then who misinterpreted your words Mike. If so, my apologies Daniel.

My interpretation when I first came across the expression... copy chops, was improving those emotional triggers which get the reader to do exactly what you want them to do. Basically, powerful and emotionally engaging trigger sentences which completely engage with the readers mind.

Many thanks fella's for providing clarification. I stand corrected.

As regards Max5ty's comments, sorry but I'm going to call you out. Not that you care anyway since this is all just one big mind game / joke to you.

You mention yet again about all this supposed success you've enjoyed and you state that it's all about the money we can earn for ourselves.

Again, I say poppycock.

Your level of money doesn't interest me. Your goal in life is not my goal in life.

I place a lot more emphasis on personal happiness inside my heart than I do on just making money just for the sake of it. It's got nothing to do with making huge amounts of money for myself that counts, what does count is how much money I can make for my clients.

You Max5ty, you state that if anyone wishes to be 'trained' by you, they have only to contact you and you'll be more than willing to help them out.

The strange thing is despite you repeating over and over again the mansion, the Bentley and everything else ad infinitum there is still no solid proof that you have any of these things.

You use a made up name here on the WF...

You use an avatar picture which doesn't show your face.

You haven't got a website where we can check out your work.

We don't know the name of your company (because you've never shared this information) where you supposedly employ 200 people.

You've deleted on your personal profile page any means by which other Warriors can contact you including the ability to send a private message.

There is no email address and to boot...

...you recently sent another copywriter here such an upsetting message that you actually got her into tears. Then afterwards you sent another one just over a week later praising her up to the hilt.

Basically sunshine, you're just bloody strange.

You don't write sales copy in the traditional sense as most of us understand the subject and there have been no examples to date of any of the work you've supposedly done which has contributed to making you your fortune.

All we do 'know' is your father was apparently a very famous magician and illusionist with a massive amount of wealth. Big deal.

Either put some real proof up like you said you was going to recently in terms of a product, which in your own words, was going to show everyone else how much better you were than all the 'clowns' on this forum or just stick a sock in it.

Nobody here cares about your material possessions which are obviously such a massive big deal to you.

You're essentially a faker, constantly positioning yourself as this super successful guy but to date there's not been a single shred of evidence to back up any one of your claims.

And what is weird is why you're even posting here when this is an online Internet marketing copywriting forum. Yet apparently, according to you, you don't even work in the same industry. :rolleyes:

It beats me what you're doing here because quite honestly, you've got nothing whatsoever to back up anything you say. It's not like you have any desire even to write sales copy as the rest of us know it.

Plain damn weird all things considered.


Mark Andrews

I'm referring to your extremely immature way of interacting with people here.

I think you just want attention... and the negative variety will do.

Bygones. (Since you're 51, I thought an Alley McBeal reference was in order.)

Cool signature link Joe!

Many thanks.

At least I've got my Dinky toy collection... a Rolls Royce, an AC Cobra, an Aeriel Atom, a Bowler Wildcat not to mention the Raytheon Hawker 500 jet.

No email from Max5ty yet. Maybe I should have put a stronger call to action?

"Oi! Bint. Email me right now!"

I have a bit of background in music, so let me weigh in on this expression that no one seems to have adequately defined or traced back, yet.

"Chops" is an expression always used in the plural. It originally comes from a description of brutish dogs or other animals, meaning jaw or mouth. (As in "licking his chops.")

This expression was taken up in the world of music, where with certain instruments, most notably trumpet and other brass instruments, the musicians must train themselves to have something called (in French) an embouchure, which means opening, and which is the precise shape and muscle tone of how the lips and mouth are held against the mouthpiece of the instrument. It's the embouchure that often separates a virtuoso from an amateur.

Therefore, when someone NOT in music talks about someone having or not having "chops," what they mean is skill, and the kind of skill that necessarily develops over time and becomes part of the person's body and soul.

Mostly "chops" in the musical context refers to or comes from jazz musicians.

When Mark talked about a "chop," he was using the expression incorrectly. It reminds me of my roommate at Cornell who was from Hungary by way of Canada. She spoke pretty good English, but had some crucial holes in her knowledge of the language. One day she came back from a Sunday brunch and told me proudly she had eaten a "lock." I didn't know what she meant until she described it and I realized she had had bagels and lox. She thought "lock" was the singular of "lox." I cracked up!

Like lox, "chops" doesn't have a singular.

Marcia Yudkin