by Sue Horner | Jan 25, 2023 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
This may be a new year, but it’s the same old, same old when it comes to wordy, baffling language. And you’ll find lots of that in any company’s Terms of Use. Terms of Use should be easy to read, don’t you think? And making them easy is just...
by Sue Horner | Nov 23, 2022 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
In the old days, a handshake was your contract. Today, the hands involved belong to lawyers, and they are all over the simplest of contracts. Unfortunately, as Ohio Judge Mark P. Painter says, “Most legal writing is atrocious.” Forget short, crisp sentences. One...
by Sue Horner | Apr 24, 2022 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
What can one person do to “invest in our planet,” the theme for Earth Day 2022? I was pondering that while out picking up garbage and recyclables to mark Earth Day. Even though I picked up a bag of each, you’d be right to suspect there will be another...
by Sue Horner | Apr 12, 2022 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
“The vast majority of your social posts will never be seen by the vast majority of your followers.” So says Michael J. Katz, who helps professional service firms talk and write about their work. Oh sure, posts made on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc., are “around for...
by Sue Horner | Jan 20, 2022 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
At 100+ decibels, the sound of a large jet nearing a runway’s end is as noisy as being in the front row of a rock concert. (Remember those?) While the pandemic slashed the number of planes landing at and taking off from Toronto’s Pearson International Airport,...
by Sue Horner | May 20, 2021 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
I’m taking part in a fundraising 5K event this summer called Push for Your Tush. As usual with such events, I had to sign a release – actually a “RELEASE, WAIVER and INDEMNITY AGREEMENT,” in all caps every time it is mentioned – for the organizer, Colorectal Cancer...
by Sue Horner | Feb 4, 2021 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
The people behind the Air Canada Aeroplan rewards plan want to make sure members keep their information secure and up-to-date. I recently found this out because I was looking into turning some of my rewards points into gifts. It’s been a while since I poked around to...
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 | Apr 22, 2020 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
We’re still seeing one particular number everywhere these days – two metres (six feet). That’s how far we have to stay away from others to slow down the spread of COVID-19. But how far is that, really? Everyone citing this number quickly realized people need a better...
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,...
