by Sue Horner | Jun 30, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Sometimes, individual months draaaag along (January, I’m looking at you), but suddenly June hurtles past and the year is halfway through. Heading into the July 1st / July 4th long weekend, here’s a half-dozen of my most-viewed blog posts so far this year: ‘How to take...
by Sue Horner | Jun 27, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
How rare is it to be born on February 29, the extra day in a Leap Year? By chance I was travelling on this extra day one year, and found this explanation by journalist Steve Rubenstein in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Being born on Feb. 29 is rare, sort of. The odds...
by Sue Horner | Jun 22, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
My client’s newsletter deadline was already past, she was scrambling to get it finished, and then WHAM. A story she was counting on looked like it had fallen through. This is a case where the person you hire to help you with some writing is more than her ability...
by Sue Horner | Jun 16, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
A mom out dancing with her son was one of the 49 people killed and 53 injured in the latest senseless shooting in the U.S. That could have been me; maybe that could have been you, or your mother, daughter, sister, wife, aunt, friend. It’s almost irrelevant that...
by Sue Horner | Jun 10, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
It breaks my heart when I read that colon cancer is 90% preventable if detected early. The fact that my brother didn’t find his in time, sadly, puts him in an uncomfortably large crowd. According to Colon Cancer Canada, about 24,400 new cases were diagnosed in...
by Sue Horner | Jun 1, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
A campaign described in The New York Times last week got me thinking about how writers can contribute to safety awareness. The article reported that roadway deaths are on the rise, and we need to stop calling the reason accidents. Writer Matt Richtel quotes “safety...
by Sue Horner | May 26, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
The well of BS is endless, as a new Twitter connection observed about business jargon this week. During the exchange, the word stakeholder came up. Fans find it a useful word describing people with an interest in something, an expansion of the original shareholders...
by Sue Horner | May 22, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
If you’re looking for writing inspiration, here’s an idea: Turn up the tunes! Musicians do a masterful job of touching our hearts and souls, and sometimes our funnybones, too. Artists tell stories using many of the more traditional writer’s tools for...
by Sue Horner | May 19, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Time to get cranky, again, about jargon and annoying words. Who’s with me? First up are overused words that are quickly becoming jargon: Hacks. I get it, it’s a handy short word, which is useful in headlines. In most cases, it’s thin disguise for...
by Sue Horner | May 11, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
The phrase stopped me in my tracks. “Man-hours.” I was interviewing a client’s internal expert, a man, talking about a recent maintenance shutdown. When he mentioned how many “man-hours” were involved, I asked if his crew was all men, and he said no, there were a few...
