Streamline sentences to translate terms; a ‘Before & After’ in Wordnerdery
This may be a new year, but it’s the same old, same old when it comes to wordy, baffling language. And you’ll find lots of that in any company’s Terms of Use. Terms of Use should be easy to read, don’t you think? And making them easy is just...
Writing tips you might have missed, December edition
A new year, a new series of social media posts you might have missed, once again all about writing. Yes, you could say that is a particular interest of mine. There’s some advice about getting back into writing after the holidays, tips to be a better writer, what...
Gaslighting and goblin mode among the 2022 words of the year
In 2022, we finally moved past the pandemic’s domination of the words people searched for online. We’re not out of the pandemic woods yet, of course, and we’re still talking about it. But we’re also looking up and talking about a range of other things going on in our...
Top 10 posts in the Red Jacket Diaries in 2022
The flurry of end-of-year lists started even before last week. So as 2022 comes to an end (finally!), here’s my last post of the year: The 10 most-viewed posts on my blog in 2022. 1. Like many (you?), I was swept up in the early days of the word craze that is Wordle....
4 Christmas ‘life is short’ flashbacks (Wordnerdery)
In December 2016, Facebook memories showed me a photo of my black Lab, Jake, staring at my son’s Christmas stocking. That photo was taken during what turned out to be Jake’s last Christmas. With the famous clarity of hindsight, I thought, and wrote about,...
A Christmas tale reveals life is short (from the vault)
This last month of the year, many of us are getting ready for family gatherings. Some have lost or are estranged from loved ones. Some just don’t have the heart after the past few years. Maybe it all reminds you, as it does me, that life is short. That reminder...
All about Christmas trees for National Christmas Tree Day
Tomorrow is the first Saturday in December, and that’s National Christmas Tree Day. It’s a perfect day to find out facts about, well, Christmas trees. I’m taking you back to the blog vault for “Fun things to know about Christmas trees.” The post shares an...
4 steps to simplify contract language (Wordnerdery)
In the old days, a handshake was your contract. Today, the hands involved belong to lawyers, and they are all over the simplest of contracts. Unfortunately, as Ohio Judge Mark P. Painter says, “Most legal writing is atrocious.” Forget short, crisp sentences. One...