by Sue Horner | Mar 30, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
I’ve been playing with the grammar function in Word after a reminder from the Publication Coach, Daphne Gray-Grant. By paying attention to things like words per sentence (aim for an average of 14 or less), passive sentences (no more than 10%) and Flesch-Kincaid...
by Sue Horner | Mar 26, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Easter was early that year; March 26. I was awake but still in bed when the doorbell rang. It must have been something like 7 a.m., so my parents and I knew something was wrong; we arrived at the door at the same time, throwing on robes. There was a police officer...
by Sue Horner | Mar 18, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
While proofreading a client’s newsletter, I flagged this: A person quoted in an article about the switch of IT support to a call centre in India calls the staff “a well-trained, highly incented and duly rewarded group of employees.” UGH! I understand...
by Sue Horner | Mar 16, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Writers love to interview someone who speaks naturally, compares a complex topic or object to something others can relate to and isn’t afraid to share personal feelings or thoughts. It just makes the whole writing process a lot easier. In the corporate world,...
by Sue Horner | Feb 28, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
It looks like it’s not too late to cast your vote for the world’s oddest book title, which will be awarded the Diagram Prize by The Bookseller, a British trade magazine. The winner will be announced March 28, with the spotter of the winning book receiving...
by Sue Horner | Feb 26, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Poets and musicians have a way with words. The snow falling as I write this brings to mind: my favourite Robert Frost poem, Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening (“He will not see me stopping here to watch his woods fill up with snow”) and Canadian folk singer Gordon...
by Sue Horner | Feb 22, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
The Toronto Star wine critic, Gord Stimmell, alerted me to the fact that tomorrow is Open That Bottle Night. Started by Wall Street Journal columnists John Brecher and Dorothy Gaiter, the event is basically a call to wine enthusiasts to stop waiting for a special...
by Sue Horner | Feb 8, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Do you ever feel like you’re drowning in emails? My friend, podcaster and fellow writer Donna Papacosta has a great tip for dealing with the growing volume of mail: Use the telephone. Not only can it save multiple emails back and forth, but it also gives you a...
by Sue Horner | Feb 7, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Does anyone else find this a somewhat odd thing to say? “A successful blog kind of opens the kimono and from a brand point of view lets people know who you are.” This is a quote from Rob Frankel, a Los Angeles-based branding consultant, from an article called Business...
by Sue Horner | Jan 28, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
January 27 was Family Literacy Day, “a national initiative that promotes the importance of reading and learning together as a family.” I celebrated by reading while Son #2 studied for exams today. I’m a big reader so it’s especially important to me that our two sons...
