by Sue Horner | Aug 24, 2015 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
We’re horrified about it now, but at one time people would say “deaf and dumb” when they meant someone who could not hear or speak. Language evolves, and we’ve come a long way. What was once said without thinking we now recognize as offensive. And just as we need to...
by Sue Horner | Jul 22, 2015 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
You may have heard me talk about “spinning straw into gold.” That’s my shorthand for turning reams of raw interview notes into a concise, readable story. Often it also means boiling 1,500 words down to 500. (“Pulling a rabbit out of a hat” is doing so to meet a tight...
by Sue Horner | Jun 24, 2015 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Non-profit organizations use annual reports to let donors know where their money goes, and ask for more support. Yet a 2013 study* shows only 26 per cent of the Canadians surveyed think charities do a good job of explaining how donations are used. So, how does a...
by Sue Horner | May 21, 2015 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Vivid images in your writing are the fastest way to give your readers that “aha!” moment of understanding. Common tools are analogies like metaphors and similes, which compare this new thing to that quite different thing. A metaphor expresses the...
by Sue Horner | Apr 24, 2015 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
This time of year, corporate sustainability reports bloom like algae in a lake. These reports show the efforts a company makes to do the right things for the environment and the community. However, the language that describes what they do is often thick with jargon....
by Sue Horner | Jan 23, 2015 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Don’t tell me you’ve found a way to “hack” your life, or your morning, or your productivity. The tiresome term appears to spring from the standard dictionary definition of “to alter (a computer program).” It gets a nod as slang for...
by Sue Horner | Dec 6, 2014 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Ready to get that flabby writing in shape? Although most of my time is usually spent writing, I’ve had several proofreading and copy editing jobs lately. These are where I review a document for typos, jargon, wayward punctuation, grammar errors, the passive voice and...
by Sue Horner | Oct 22, 2014 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Have you run across “TLDNR” yet? It stands for “Too long, did not read.” As the Urban Dictionary explains it, you respond with “TLDNR” when someone writes too much in a blog post and you can’t be bothered reading it all. Ouch. Everyone is...
by Sue Horner | Sep 22, 2014 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
The Canadian Press Stylebook is all about practical. Yet I love that it says using quotes in your writing will “put the rosiness into the cheeks of the palest stories.” The September issue of my monthly newsletter, Wordnerdery, has a few suggestions about getting and...
by Sue Horner | Aug 21, 2014 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Newsletter articles and any other writing — speaking too! — can be improved if you cut out “hollow and meaningless” business language. This gobbledygook is also known as jargon monoxide, a wonderful term I discovered this week in a tweet by Stanford...
