by Sue Horner | Mar 28, 2018 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
You’ve found a terrific opening to your story or article. Readers are interested and willing to keep reading to find out more. Where do you take them next? The “nut graf” almost always follows the lead (also called a lede) and explains the news value of the story....
by Sue Horner | Mar 21, 2018 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Those of us on Facebook freely share our likes and dislikes, thoughts and feelings. We know that someone is listening, but don’t really give it much thought. We may pay a little more attention now that we know a researcher collected and used data from 50 million...
by Sue Horner | Mar 15, 2018 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Hey, all you experienced, passionate, strategic professionals out there. If you’re promoting yourself on LinkedIn with those words, you may not be standing out the way you hoped. Apparently, too many of LinkedIn’s more than 546 million users worldwide (as of January...
by Sue Horner | Mar 8, 2018 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Wordies, rejoice; we’re in the dictionary. Yes, we lovers of words join foodies and groupies in having a dictionary-blessed term that defines us as a collective. As Merriam-Webster.com notes, “Language doesn’t take a vacation, and neither does the dictionary.” Thus...
by Sue Horner | Feb 28, 2018 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Gini Dietrich knows about the highs and lows of small business, and persisting through them. During a recent webinar, the founder and CEO of PR firm Arment Dietrich walked members of IABC/Toronto’s Professional Independent Communicators through the story of her...
by Sue Horner | Feb 22, 2018 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Never mind the famous thought that people have a shorter attention span than that of a goldfish. (Who measured the goldfish anyway, and how?) People pay attention when they are interested, or when it’s in their best interest. So if you’re producing articles, web copy,...
by Sue Horner | Feb 14, 2018 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
More than 4.7 million people were asking Google this week if blogging is dead. After quietly celebrating 11 years of blogging in January (I was surprised too), I have to say the question comes up every year. The answer is still no. In fact, Christopher Penn of SHIFT...
by Sue Horner | Feb 7, 2018 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Writers and editors love a short, punchy word, especially in headlines. A short word grabs attention while saving precious space. It’s memorable. It gets to the point. Sometimes, though, that word brings something else to mind. I’m guessing that short punchiness is...
by Sue Horner | Jan 25, 2018 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Novelists, journalists and corporate communicators have this in common: We all want readers to read our writing. An effective headline sets the stage, but how we open the story or article invites readers in, or sends them scurrying for the door. How do you start? Here...
by Sue Horner | Jan 11, 2018 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
If you’re a word nerd, like me, you probably look forward to the release in early January of the “words of the year” from the previous year. They’re out! In past years, the words chosen were often catchy new portmanteaux – words formed by blending two or more distinct...
