by Sue Horner | Jul 29, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
A column in today’s Toronto Star had a great way of describing the liver’s function: “Almost all of the nutrients you eat have to pass through the the liver before moving to the heart for generalized distribution. Your liver decides what gets kept...
by Sue Horner | Jun 12, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Really, I’m working away here, but I just had to stop and share this. A client invited me to sit in on a conference call, with the intent of writing an article for the employee newsletter. Before the call, the fellows we’d be talking to took the time to...
by Sue Horner | May 2, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
My local newspaper has won all kinds of awards for “best community newspaper.” I like it. I like reading about local successes, what’s happening in the schools, what topics have readers’ shorts in a knot. I subscribe, even though many areas get...
by Sue Horner | Apr 29, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
After “Bitter Waitress” posted a comment on my rant about a restaurant not taking reservations, I asked her how she found her way to my blog. Her reply indicates, as if you didn’t already know this, that you just never know who is going to find you...
by Sue Horner | Apr 25, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
After posting yesterday about a 66-word sentence, I came across Grammar Girl’s column on the same topic. Quoting Bonnie Trenga of Sentence Sleuth, she says about why you should keep it brief: “Your readers are following a path you’ve laid out for...
by Sue Horner | Apr 24, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
A colleague asked my opinion on a line in a client’s article this week. The colleague thought the line ungrammatical but the client insisted it was right. In the interests of privacy, I won’t show you the line here. However, I can tell you that...
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 22, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
From Encarta’s top 10 business buzzwords: Delayering: A newer, more PC term for “rightsizing,” a.k.a. downsizing. Potato, potahto. It’s still a layoff. Narcissurfing: Googling yourself to see where, when and how often you show up on the...
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 | Mar 11, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Today I found Marci Alboher’s New York Times blog Shifting Careers, which highlights “the newfangled ways we are custom-blending careers, and shares tips for doing it better.” Check out the post about the “Web 2.0 resume,” which includes...