The Red Jacket Diaries blog

Sue Horner is a freelance writer in Oakville, Ontario, who blogs about writing, newsletters, communications and running an independent business in The Red Jacket Diaries blog.

‘App’ makes Word of the Year

Those crazy word-nerds in the American Dialect Society have done it again, coming out with “app” as their Word of the Year for 2010.  As even your grandmother probably knows, app is short for software application, and has gained particular popularity in...

Man up? Be gone

Along with a fresh new year comes the latest list of Banished Words, as issued by Lake Superior State University. How epic is that? While you might wish many of these words to actually be banished forever, that’s just wishful thinking. The list for 2011 includes...
Live your life, part 2

Live your life, part 2

We interrupt the week’s frantic shopping, work and studies to bring you this important public message: Do not wait to live your life until you find the perfect man or woman. If the Sexiest Man Alive (so named by People magazine), Ryan Reynolds, and the Sexiest...
E-newsletters a great tool

E-newsletters a great tool

While Facebook and Twitter continue to get all the press, email newsletters just keep building their solid reputation. In fact, they are “the Internet’s best tool for supplementing a website,” according to web usability expert Jakob Nielsen:...

Funny but dubious honour

Leave it to the British to give an award for Bad Sex in Fiction! The 18th annual (dis)honour, given out last night, went to Rowan Somerville for his novel The Shape of Her. Somerville won over the judges with phrases such as the one describing an act of lovemaking as...