by Sue Horner | Mar 20, 2019 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Love them or hate them, numbers are all around us. Whether numbers mean anything to your reader or not often comes down to how well they are explained. I recently ran across Making Data Meaningful (pdf), a guide designed to be “a practical tool to help managers,...
by Sue Horner | Oct 24, 2018 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
The Guardian’s Alex Hern forced himself to read all the terms and conditions he encountered in one week. In that time, he collected 146,000 words of legalese in 33 documents. It was, he said, “enough to fill three quarters of Moby Dick, just to explain what I can and...
by Sue Horner | Oct 11, 2018 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Let’s be clear. Those “Terms and Conditions” we have to “accept” or “agree to” before using new software, phones and other technology are anything but clear. I blame lawyers, who stuff sentences with words to cover every possible situation. The sentences are wordy and...
by Sue Horner | Nov 23, 2017 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Noise is a big issue around airports. A jet taking off can produce an average of 100 to 120 decibels. That’s as noisy as it is in the front row of a rock concert. If, like airports, your business makes noise that’s affecting your neighbours, you want to show that...
by Sue Horner | Nov 23, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
As a Canadian, I won’t comment on the recent U.S. election. But I will say it’s interesting that certain aspects of president-elect Donald Trump’s speaking style could be considered plain language. The November issue of my newsletter, Wordnerdery, talks about five...
by Sue Horner | Oct 13, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
What better day than International Plain Language Day (Oct. 13) to talk about getting rid of jargon and wordiness? Plain Language Day is a way to let people know that plain language doesn’t mean “dumbing down” material or making it too elementary, a worry a...
by Sue Horner | Sep 7, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
The plaintive opening drew me in immediately: “Why are many financial news releases and publicly filed documents written so poorly?” In A Plea for Plain English in Financial Documents, Steve Lipin and Adam Rosman make the case for good writing in financial...
by Sue Horner | Aug 10, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
The Olympics can’t keep up with the corporate world when it comes to jargon, but they sure have a vocabulary all their own. With the 2016 Summer Olympics in full swing in Rio, let’s take a look. The most noteworthy/cringeworthy is how achieving a medal has...
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 | Mar 22, 2012 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
I encountered an error message this morning trying to get to a Paper.li page. Talk about corporatespeak!!! The infrastructure issue impacting the service has been well identified and we are now closing in on a final resolution. Let’s pick it apart:...
