by Sue Horner | Oct 14, 2020 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Plain language can save lives or make them harder, as the Center for Plain Language noted on Twitter this week. The occasion: International Plain Language Day (Oct. 13). We were disappointed with many of the results of the Federal Plain Language Report Card this year....
by Sue Horner | Sep 2, 2020 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Remember the old days, when you used to buy software and run it until it would randomly crash and other things started to go wrong? Then you’d upgrade, spend hours getting things working again, and then run it until the danger zone again because it was such a hassle?...
by Sue Horner | Nov 26, 2019 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Oh, my poor eyes and brain. When I logged into my analytics last week, Google asked me to agree to new “Google Measurement Controller-Controller Data Protection Terms.” Like you, probably, I usually just click on “agree.” This time, I copied, saved and read the terms....
by Sue Horner | Jun 28, 2019 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
One way to help people understood something is get to the point. Don’t bury your information in too much detail, ramble, or hide the action with passive language. While falling down the rabbit hole of internet links one day, I happened upon an article from 2015 that...
by Sue Horner | Jun 21, 2018 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Are you a Fitbit fan? I am. I’ve been wearing the step tracker since December 2014, and it encourages me to look for reasons to take a few extra steps, like parking further away from a store or the train station, or taking the long way home after a short walk with...
by Sue Horner | Jun 27, 2017 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Last week, I got a letter from the publisher of Reader’s Digest, indicating I “could” be a winner. Ooh, I have a chance to earn a chance to win ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS! The letter is a classic direct mail sales letter, complete with the required P.S., supposedly...
by Sue Horner | Jul 21, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
If you produce material that you hope will be read and understood, you can use readability tests to get an idea of how you’re doing. While researching road ecology – the study of the often deadly interaction of roads and nature – I ran across a guide called a...
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 | Jun 22, 2010 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Ontario and British Columbia are getting a new Harmonized Sales Tax, or HST, on July 1. The HST replaces the Goods & Services Tax that I now charge, so this will affect me. So I signed up about a month ago to receive technical bulletins from the government that...
