by Sue Horner | Aug 27, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
I confess to taking a moment today to bask in the glow of a compliment about an online newsletter article I just submitted. However, it reminded me of something once asked of me: “So, are you only as good as your last article/newsletter?” (This was many...
by Sue Horner | Jul 27, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
What a coincidence! The latest issue of Daphne Gray-Grant’s weekly Power Writing Tips newsletter (for people “who want to write better, faster”) also talks about the pompous way people sometimes want to be quoted, similar to my last post: “But...
by Sue Horner | Jul 25, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
A colleague shared this great term for an affliction common in the corporate world: source remorse editing. That’s when you get a terrific, meaningful, human quote from someone for a corporate use, say a newsletter. During the approval process, your contact sees...
by Sue Horner | Apr 10, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Writers should never fall in love with their own words, because the pleasure in capturing exactly what you wanted to say can disappear faster than a jerky treat in front of a Lab. I was reminded of this when my client called with the bad news that Big Executive wanted...
by Sue Horner | Jan 29, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Several different sources pointed me to a marvellous book on writing, Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, published in 1994. The title comes from advice her father gave to her (then) 10-year-old brother, who was struggling to start...
by Sue Horner | Jan 26, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
I’ll be the first to admit I’m not perfect. But like author Lynne Truss of Eats, Shoots and Leaves fame, I can’t help but notice and be appalled by the punctuation mistakes that regularly get past proofreaders. (Or perhaps nobody hires proofreaders...
