by Sue Horner | Apr 10, 2019 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Hands up if you volunteer! Hey, good for you – and good for the organization you’re helping. Much of the work in associations, schools and other groups only gets done if volunteers tackle it. In fact, if you find yourself grumbling, “Why doesn’t this group [do...
by Sue Horner | Mar 20, 2019 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Love them or hate them, numbers are all around us. Whether numbers mean anything to your reader or not often comes down to how well they are explained. I recently ran across Making Data Meaningful (pdf), a guide designed to be “a practical tool to help managers,...
by Sue Horner | Mar 14, 2019 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Can you remember life before the web? Probably barely, even if you are old enough. The World Wide Web turned 30 this week, starting “a technological revolution that has transformed the way people buy goods, share ideas, get information and much more,” reports...
by Sue Horner | Mar 7, 2019 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
A PR colleague is having a hard time convincing me that using “ecosystem” outside the realm of biology and science isn’t jargon. It is. Here’s the usual definition: “A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment” (The Canadian Oxford...
by Sue Horner | Feb 28, 2019 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Every year, people wonder: Is blogging dead? I always wonder this myself when my blogging anniversary comes up in January (12 years and 800+ posts!), and do a search to find out the current thinking. This week, about 74 million went to Google to find out, too. The...
by Sue Horner | Feb 21, 2019 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
When it comes to the workplace, one form of communication does not fit all. This is especially true now that employees may span five generations, ranging from Traditionalists (born before 1946) to Generation Z (born after 1997). Thousands of internal communicators...
by Sue Horner | Feb 14, 2019 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
You can’t always (ever?) be wildly creative in corporate writing. But you can choose words and phrases that are interesting and colourful to help your readers “see” what you mean. If you want to explain something, make a point or reflect or spark emotion, reach for...
by Sue Horner | Feb 7, 2019 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Why say “the earthy scent released when rain hits dry earth” when you could go with “petrichor”? That’s what Merriam-Webster tweeted recently. I love words almost as much as Merriam-Webster, but I would pick the full description. One, it’s wonderfully evocative. You...
by Sue Horner | Jan 23, 2019 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
“It’s only mid-January, but chances are pretty good that all those lofty resolutions you made before the clock struck midnight on Dec. 31 have fallen by the wayside,” says executive coach Harrison Monarth in an article for Entrepreneur. What happens? We have good...
by Sue Horner | Jan 17, 2019 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
I’m celebrating 28 years in business this month – wow! Check out “A leap of faith to a dream job (with a great boss)” for a look at the best things about running my own business, and tips and resources if by chance you’re thinking about taking your own leap....
