by Sue Horner | Dec 16, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Here’s one for communications guru Les Potter, ABC: Krudzu: Any proliferating management fad — or simply dumb concept — that overtakes and eventually strangles a company or organization. (From Buzzwhack.com.) Why Les? Because we had a discussion...
by Sue Horner | Dec 15, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
More random misspellings spotted in places where there really should be someone who knows better: three discreet stages of innovation (discrete) his interest is clearly perked (piqued) this was born out by the conversation (borne) take a peak at the table of contents...
by Sue Horner | Dec 8, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Trust a writer to take away a word-related lesson after a near-fatal experience. Daphne Gray-Grant’s regular Power Writing newsletter was delayed. When issue#149 did arrive, she explained the delay: she’d been in hospital because she’d had a stroke....
by Sue Horner | Nov 25, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Some of the writing I do for Big Client #1 goes to American readers as well as Canadian. All along, the articles have gone on separate pages, so we stuck to American spelling with things written specifically for the U.S. page and Canadian spelling for the Canucks. Now...
by Sue Horner | Nov 13, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
From the “glad I didn’t write that” files, some errors spotted recently in prominent places: …aged to a natural petina (patina) …receive a complementary gift with test drive (complimentary) …being completely wreckless with your future...
by Sue Horner | Oct 28, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
I’ve written before about the delightful column in The Atlantic where Barbara Wallraff posts reader requests (and ideas) for words that don’t exist but should. I didn’t realize that she also has a book called Word Fugitives until my husband, knowing...
by Sue Horner | Oct 20, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Astrologers who find new stars get their discoveries named after them; so do researchers identifying new diseases. Did you know that there is at least one writer who has been similarly recognized, although for a practice rather than a discovery? I had never heard the...
by Sue Horner | Oct 16, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Yesterday was Blog Action Day, where more than 9,000 bloggers had signed up to “raise awareness, initiate action and shake the web” by discussing poverty. High housing costs often mean a decision between paying the rent and eating properly. In my...
by Sue Horner | Oct 9, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
This spring, I posted about the Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year. I recently found out that The Bookseller has crowned the Diagram of Diagrams, bestowing the title of Oddest Book Title among all the winners of the past 30 years. You may be surprised to...
by Sue Horner | Oct 7, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
An appealing recent entry from WordSpy (a web site devoted to “lexpionage,” the sleuthing of new words and phrases) is “stay-at-work mom.” The term refers to a mother who returns to work soon after giving birth. I think it equally applies to...
