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.

More engaging phrases

For your reading pleasure, more examples of clever writers getting a specific point across: “Guys like Bruce were as common as white socks sold in six packs at the Wal-Mart.”  – Jennifer Weiner in Good in Bed “Abiding by the rules worked until...

Test your Scrabble power

Here’s a new way to waste time practice your Scrabble(R) skills: Scrabble Zone, found at Merriam-Webster Online. You don’t actually connect the words the way you do on a Scrabble board, just make a word as fast as possible with the tiles given. Premium...

Survivor: Offline

Could you do without your computer and your online life for a week? It’s an experiment I conducted last week, after dropping off my laptop for repairs and going skiing at Mont Tremblant, Quebec. My main clients knew I was away and all my projects were up to...

Die, buzzwords, die

This week, a Toronto newspaper ran a story with a headline containing a buzzword that is one of my most detested — “win-win” — so it’s obvious the battle against meaningless phrases must continue. On our side, we have sites that make fun...
Glory file as a word cloud

Glory file as a word cloud

At one point, word clouds were everywhere: illustrating a  newspaper article, highlighting a book’s content, offering a glimpse into a web site. And for good reason. They are great visual signals for what’s inside. I made the one shown here with a fun toy...

Are the ads worth it?

The discussion over Super Bowl ads continues days after they aired. Of course, we Canadians are sheltered and can’t see the ads during the event itself, but they are a still a hot topic of conversation. (The game? What game? Oh, yeah, the football game, we did...

More fun words

Some interesting words I’ve run across lately: Wrapsimonious: “Joe recycles nothing, so when he carefully removes the paper from his gift, he’s just being wrapsimonious so he won’t have to purchase any.” (From Verbotomy) Clickstream: The...

Customer service/disservice files

Is the way your company operates thinking of the customer first? Or at all? I have recent examples of two companies that did a good job and two that did not. The surprising instances of customer appreciation: Bank of Montreal: My husband and I have banked with BMO for...

Starting out? Listen to Donna

I’m having lunch later this week with an acquaintance who is considering launching her own business and wants to “pick my brain.” While I don’t claim to know it all, I’ve had my own business for about 18 years, so I must be doing some things right! I’m happy to share...