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.

When your words inspire

After “Bitter Waitress” posted a comment on my rant about a restaurant not taking reservations, I asked her how she found her way to my blog. Her reply indicates, as if you didn’t already know this, that you just never know who is going to find you...

Dog with a rap sheet update

You may be wondering how Jake, the dog known to police, is doing these days. I’m happy to say he is not looking mournfully out from behind bars. After our call from the Humane Society officer, I did indeed take steps that will weigh in his favour should someone...

More on lengthy sentences

After posting yesterday about a 66-word sentence, I came across Grammar Girl’s column on the same topic. Quoting Bonnie Trenga of Sentence Sleuth, she says about why you should keep it brief: “Your readers are following a path you’ve laid out for...

The long sentence award

A colleague asked my opinion on a line in a client’s article this week. The colleague thought the line ungrammatical but the client insisted it was right. In the interests of privacy, I won’t show you the line here. However, I can tell you that...

Attention to detail

As confessed here before, I am certainly not perfect. But a flurry of errors in ads, newspapers, a concert program and a sign makes me wonder if anyone cares/notices any more. Spotted recently: Diamond in the ruff (rough) Patsy Klein (Cline) Gift’s with purchase...

Leverage this

This week, a client sent me two tapes to listen to and turn into an engaging newsletter article. The tapes contained two different interviews with executives. One took the time to explain acronyms and seemed human, by oh my! The other! I can’t tell you how many...
Silly dog trivia

Silly dog trivia

From Encarta: “The total cost of buying, feeding and maintaining a dog the size of a Labrador retriever is, on average, equal to the cost of one Starbucks Espresso Frappuccino a day.” Lucky for Jake that I don’t spend much time at...