by Sue Horner | Feb 7, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
An e-mail newsletter to which I subscribe (Writer’s Web Watch, now called Communications Concepts) recently recommended “improving your vocabulary” and using resources such as a thesaurus, grammar book, style guide and dictionary. I do have all these books on a nearby...
by Sue Horner | Feb 5, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
When I run across a book that’s highly recommended, I check if it’s available at my local library and put a hold on it. Quite often I have a number of books lined up, so when the call comes in that my “hold” is in, it’s always a surprise to see what’s waiting for me....
by Sue Horner | Feb 2, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
The Beach Boys are apparently playing at the Metro Convention Centre in Toronto tomorrow night for “the most successful fundraising gala in Canada.” It’s the SuperGala put on by the Grocery Industry Foundation…Together (GIFT), with half of the proceeds going to...
by Sue Horner | Jan 31, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
After puzzling over the name of this blog and doing a search that came up with things like the name of a football team, a colleague confessed he didn’t understand where “Red Jacket Diaries” came from. Here’s the short answer: I’m more introverted than extrovert, so if...
by Sue Horner | Jan 30, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
This is a story about web site usability, but it starts with communications with a personal touch. In his networking sessions called Breaking Down Silos, speaker Dave Howlett advises sending personal thank you cards and making a connection with people by sharing...
by Sue Horner | Jan 29, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Several different sources pointed me to a marvellous book on writing, Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, published in 1994. The title comes from advice her father gave to her (then) 10-year-old brother, who was struggling to start...
by Sue Horner | Jan 27, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
In a post on his new blog More with Les (there, you see? I’m not the only one new to blogging), well-known International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) guru Les Potter, ABC talks about the importance of professional association membership to a...
by Sue Horner | Jan 26, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
I’ll be the first to admit I’m not perfect. But like author Lynne Truss of Eats, Shoots and Leaves fame, I can’t help but notice and be appalled by the punctuation mistakes that regularly get past proofreaders. (Or perhaps nobody hires proofreaders...
by Sue Horner | Jan 24, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Frankly, I’ve been stung into posting this. Several times recently I’ve run across comments that suggest if I am (1) a freelance writer and (2) worth anything, I should have a blog. That’s probably the worst reason to have a blog, but I actually have a better one: As...
by Sue Horner | Jan 4, 2007 | Writing samples
(Profile of Judge Stanley Grizzle for Via Rail Magazine) A glance at Judge Stanley G. Grizzle’s shoes reveals an impressive shine. This pair happens to be smooth patent leather, but every pair he owns looks almost as glossy. It’s a habit; as a sleeping car...
