by Sue Horner | Oct 28, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
I’ve written before about the delightful column in The Atlantic where Barbara Wallraff posts reader requests (and ideas) for words that don’t exist but should. I didn’t realize that she also has a book called Word Fugitives until my husband, knowing...
by Sue Horner | Oct 20, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Astrologers who find new stars get their discoveries named after them; so do researchers identifying new diseases. Did you know that there is at least one writer who has been similarly recognized, although for a practice rather than a discovery? I had never heard the...
by Sue Horner | Oct 14, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Here’s a secret about a lot of writers, or maybe just humans. We have fragile egos. We crave positive feedback, and when we don’t get much (or any), we’re often struck by a feeling of “I’m not as good as [fill in name of admired author...
by Sue Horner | Oct 9, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
This spring, I posted about the Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year. I recently found out that The Bookseller has crowned the Diagram of Diagrams, bestowing the title of Oddest Book Title among all the winners of the past 30 years. You may be surprised to...
by Sue Horner | Sep 30, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
As I wrote this, Mitch Joel was saying there’s never been a better time to start your own blog. Technorati said in its State of the Blogosphere/2008 report that “blogging is not dead” and “blogs are here to stay.” The report also notes...
by Sue Horner | Sep 23, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
I scared myself recently by turning down two jobs. Two! Before you wonder how well my brain is functioning, let me tell you why I turned away work, and why you should seriously consider doing the same when you have the option. Both jobs had unreasonable deadlines; I...
by Sue Horner | Sep 22, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox talks about store locators on web sites, where he says “it must be not only possible to accomplish the task, but also easy and pleasant to do so.” Good advice. I’ve run into sites before where it’s easy to find...
by Sue Horner | Sep 18, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Having just edited a client’s news release, I found David Meerman Scott’s post on weasel words, gobbledygook, jargon and other baloney quite topical! (Check it out for some awful examples of what not to write.) The release I worked on started out in the...
by Sue Horner | Sep 17, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Don’t you almost hate to watch the news, open a newspaper or check your stocks these days? The bad news is unrelenting. Formerly solid companies going bust. Layoffs. Gasoline prices through the roof. Catastrophic weather. It’s definitely an uncertain world we live in....
by Sue Horner | Sep 3, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Last week, I was juggling several different articles for two different employee publications. One somewhat daunting piece started off with three interviews, four people to quote and three pages of notes. I had 1,500 words to boil down into 500, a process I like to...
