by Sue Horner | Mar 16, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
A young PR professional with about a year of corporate experience under her belt approached me to talk about how to develop her career. We had a good conversation, after which she said she was inspired “to take tangible steps toward strengthening my visibility...
by Sue Horner | Mar 9, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
A photo caption’s job isn’t to tell the whole story all by itself. Ideally, the photo captures attention; the caption adds meaning and leads the reader to the story for more details. Of course, there are plenty of rules about captions (also called cutlines). A...
by Sue Horner | Mar 4, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
It’s National Grammar Day! I know, exciting, isn’t it? 🙂 The big day goes back to 2008, when Martha Brockenbrough and the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (SPOGG) founded it. SPOGG is “for people appalled by bad grammar in public spaces.” Yup,...
by Sue Horner | Feb 26, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
You watch; my mother will probably get “bezzy” on a triple in one of our usual spirited Words with Friends games. So don’t tell her about the words that Scrabble now officially accepts, including: Augh: An interjection expressing frustration (shades of Charlie...
by Sue Horner | Feb 18, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Steve Jobs illustrated the value of an iPod by saying it would let you take your whole music library with you in your pocket. That’s the kind of expressive language that gives readers or listeners an “aha!” moment of understanding. The February issue of my...
by Sue Horner | Feb 11, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
“LinkedIn has become the fish wrap of the Internet.” That statement by Nick Corcodilos on the Ask The Headhunter blog made me laugh, but it also serves as a warning. If you’ve jumped on the LinkedIn Publishing bandwagon, make sure your articles have...
by Sue Horner | Feb 3, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Years ago, writing for a company that shall be nameless prompted me to start each day by updating my voice mail message. Company Xers were the worst at having a generic voice mail message, and I would find out days later that someone I needed to speak with was...
by Sue Horner | Jan 29, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
January is a big month here at Get It Write headquarters. In this month of new beginnings, I celebrate the leap of faith that launched my business in 1991, and I also mark another year of sharing my thoughts on the Red Jacket Diaries blog. Yes, I recently marked my...
by Sue Horner | Jan 25, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Inc.com’s contributing editor, Geoffrey James, doesn’t sugarcoat it. In a piece called How Corporate-Speak Rots Your Brain and How To Stop It, he says jargon “makes you and everyone around you progressively less intelligent.” What’s more, rather than making you sound...
by Sue Horner | Jan 21, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
My competitors are better than me. I’m not as smart as my colleagues. People won’t want to pay for the services I offer. If you’ve ever found yourself thinking thoughts like this, you’ve been the victim of perceptions you have about yourself...
