by Sue Horner | Aug 26, 2025 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
How do you help readers grasp the meaning of especially large or small numbers? Make those numbers make sense by relating them to a familiar place, person or thing. See what I mean in my August newsletter. By coincidence, the examples I found all relate to places...
by Sue Horner | Jul 24, 2025 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
It’s official; you can now be “Coldplayed.” This is “the act of being unintentionally exposed while cheating, especially in public, usually during major events.” We can thank the kiss cam at a Coldplay concert for the term. It put a spotlight on software company...
by Sue Horner | Jul 14, 2025 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
As I always like to say, words are my business. So as a writer, I’m always ready to learn more about how to be a better writer. For this roundup of social media posts you might have missed, I found helpful suggestions for better interviewing to start your writing....
by Sue Horner | Jun 23, 2025 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Not to pick on lawyers or anything, but I found a letter to shareholders that’s clearly written by a committee of legal beagles. With an opening that crammed 120 words into one sentence, it cried out for the “Before & After” treatment....
by Sue Horner | Jun 11, 2025 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
While there are certainly fewer people on X these days (thanks, Elon!), there’s no shortage of “noise” on social media. So in case you missed them, here are some interesting posts I’ve run across, related to plain language, jargon and explaining the complex. Bonus:...
by Sue Horner | May 23, 2025 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Writing inspiration comes from many sources, and this won’t be the first time I’ve pointed you to musicians. The May issue of my newsletter, Wordnerdery, looks at the powerful lyrics of Bruce Springsteen. Called “the embodiment of rock & roll,” Bruce...
by Sue Horner | May 6, 2025 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
I’m sad to see companies backing out of commitments to Pride month, also known as “rainbow hushing” (quietly dropping or rebranding diversity programs). It’s a fallout of the current U.S. administration’s opinion of diversity and LGBTQ issues, and it seems to be...
by Sue Horner | Apr 25, 2025 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
You may not want to give AI your company’s or client’s information. Or you may not be fast enough at coming up with the detailed prompts you need to get a usable first draft from AI, or the time to make up for AI hallucinations. When you have something to...
by Sue Horner | Apr 4, 2025 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog, Writing samples
If you could go back in time, what would you do over? That’s what my client asked its members. My assignment was to follow up and get the details – some surprising, some inspiring – for their quarterly magazine. The results are in my article below, featured on page 19...
by Sue Horner | Mar 21, 2025 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Steve Jobs used an analogy when he introduced the iPod in 2001, saying it held your whole music library in a device small enough to fit in your pocket. As he said, “Analogies work because they make the unfamiliar familiar; they help the mind navigate new terrain by...
