by Sue Horner | Aug 19, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
You claim you’re trying to quit. You sneak off to furtively indulge in just one more. You check your pockets often to make sure you have your secret vice with you. In the old days (the Dark Ages, as my kids would say), you’d be a smoker. These days, you’ve...
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 18, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
While proofreading a client’s newsletter, I flagged this: A person quoted in an article about the switch of IT support to a call centre in India calls the staff “a well-trained, highly incented and duly rewarded group of employees.” UGH! I understand...
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...
by Sue Horner | Nov 1, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
New Orleans native and crisis communications expert Gerard Braud (pronounced Jared Bro) is torn between being passionate about crisis communications and being angry that so many people aren’t prepared for the most likely of crises. “In a crisis,...
by Sue Horner | Oct 1, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
I’ve ranted before about the bad things that happen to good quotes at the hands of executives, so I was pleased to see my sentiments echoed in an article (sorry, I tried to link to it but it may be one of those limited-time-access things) by the impassioned...
by Sue Horner | Aug 2, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
My dog is known to police. I found this out from a hanging door tag left by the local Humane Society while I was out. “Please call the officer below re: incident involving ‘Jake’,” it said. Uh oh! While I was away one weekend, Jake had stayed...
by Sue Horner | Aug 1, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
No wonder employees find it hard to understand company “leaders” (the new word for managers, apparently). The latest “BigExec-speak” I ran into this week: Action as a verb, as in, “We’ll action those areas.” Ugh. Criticality....
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 | May 9, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Last night, after a quick change from capris and bare feet to Little Black Dress and heels, I attended IABC/Toronto’s OVATION awards night in downtown Toronto, “applauding excellence in communications.” I’m pleased to say that I was part of a...
