by Sue Horner | Jun 21, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Stephen King’s books used to be on my reading list. Early in my working career, I read The Shining on the half-hour train from the suburbs into the city. I would get on the train and start reading, and suddenly I would look up, eyes wide and heart pounding, and...
by Sue Horner | Jun 11, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
What a great exercise in telling a story and setting a mood, in a tight framework too! I’m talking about the Copyblogger’s Twitter Writing Contest. The goal: Write a story in exactly 140 characters (the length of a post on Twitter, aka a tweet). Not more,...
by Sue Horner | May 22, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
If you are a blogger, consider yourself patted on the back by Anne Holland, Content Director of MarketingSherpa. She encourages bloggers in the May 12 newsletter (see #9) thusly: “Starting a blog is easy. Keeping the blog going for more than a few months is...
by Sue Horner | Mar 30, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
I’ve been playing with the grammar function in Word after a reminder from the Publication Coach, Daphne Gray-Grant. By paying attention to things like words per sentence (aim for an average of 14 or less), passive sentences (no more than 10%) and Flesch-Kincaid...
by Sue Horner | Mar 16, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Writers love to interview someone who speaks naturally, compares a complex topic or object to something others can relate to and isn’t afraid to share personal feelings or thoughts. It just makes the whole writing process a lot easier. In the corporate world,...
by Sue Horner | Feb 8, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Do you ever feel like you’re drowning in emails? My friend, podcaster and fellow writer Donna Papacosta has a great tip for dealing with the growing volume of mail: Use the telephone. Not only can it save multiple emails back and forth, but it also gives you a...
by Sue Horner | Jan 25, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Those who spend large amounts of time online will totally understand when T.J. Larkin, in a weekly Larkin Pages research summary, says that we’re the ones responsible for half of our own interruptions. Think of all those blogs you follow, keeping up your own...
by Sue Horner | Jan 16, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
One of my clients used to challenge those of us (employees and freelancers) who wrote for the employee newsletter to come up with ever more interesting and clever headlines. During a weekly conference call discussing the newsletter, the editor often mentioned...
by Sue Horner | Jan 14, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
There was some back and forth in the Toronto Star recently about outdated language in reference to people with disabilities. Former Ontario MPP Gary Malkowski, a long-time advocate for those who are deaf, took offence at a Star headline that used the phrase,...
by Sue Horner | Nov 27, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Spot quiz: Is the American holiday in February: a) President’s Day b) Presidents’ Day c) Presidents Day? Surprise! The answer seems to be (d), all of the above. While editing a client’s calendar, which included reference to both Canadian and American...
