Tips for better inclusion in links you might have missed, January edition
Welcome to another roundup of links you might have missed from posts I’ve shared on social media! This collection has to do with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). You may be interested to know that inclusion is the reason I stopped calling these “ICYMI” (In case...
Marvellous metaphors in February 2023 Wordnerdery
Metaphors are marvellous when you want to explain something complicated, give an idea of size, make a point memorably – or just make someone smile. “An especially apt metaphor surprises and delights,” says author Jack Hart in A Writer’s Coach: An Editor’s Guide to...
Thinking about getting certified? Here’s what you need to know
If you want to get certified as a communication professional, get on it. You don’t have to leave your house. You don’t have to wait for your IABC chapter to host an in-person exam, although you can check with them if that’s your preference. You can write your...
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,...