by Sue Horner | Apr 12, 2015 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Anything worth doing is worth doing with WOW. So says online retailer Zappos, which for years has been a name synonymous for great customer service. At least, that’s what I had heard. I hadn’t experienced it myself because Zappos no longer ships to Canada...
by Sue Horner | Jan 23, 2015 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Don’t tell me you’ve found a way to “hack” your life, or your morning, or your productivity. The tiresome term appears to spring from the standard dictionary definition of “to alter (a computer program).” It gets a nod as slang for...
by Sue Horner | Jan 6, 2015 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
People love to create new words, and every year we officially welcome some of the best/most used ones; or maybe, reluctantly let them in the back door. These words generally reflect the “preoccupations” of the year and are thought to have staying power....
by Sue Horner | Dec 21, 2014 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
You can’t always (ever?) be wildly creative in corporate writing. But you can and should choose words and phrases that are interesting and colourful to help your readers “see” what you mean. I’m always on the lookout for expressive writing, and...
by Sue Horner | Sep 12, 2014 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
You may have missed the latest crop of words welcomed (or possibly just reluctantly allowed) into the English language, but you have surely heard many of them. Binge-watch is one example, something I did with some friends catching up on Downton Abbey seasons, and...
by Sue Horner | Aug 21, 2014 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Newsletter articles and any other writing — speaking too! — can be improved if you cut out “hollow and meaningless” business language. This gobbledygook is also known as jargon monoxide, a wonderful term I discovered this week in a tweet by Stanford...
by Sue Horner | Jul 23, 2014 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Any writing can be improved by careful attention to words that convey meaning or emotion, or metaphors and analogies that bring a concept to life. The July issue of my newsletter, Wordnerdery, shares some wonderful examples of expressive writing I’ve found...
by Sue Horner | Feb 26, 2014 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
A large flock of crows swooped overhead as I walked the dog one day. Although it was early morning, my brain dimly recalled the official name is a murder of crows, in the obscure naming convention of “collective nouns.” I looked up collective nouns, and...
by Sue Horner | Feb 5, 2014 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Snow is again falling, the story of the winter of 2013-2014 for much of the eastern United States and Canada. It’s barely February, so there is much winter to come. Even skiers can’t be happy about this, when blowing snow creates whiteout conditions for...
by Sue Horner | Jan 6, 2014 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Selfie received the most nominations to the 39th annual list of banished words and phrases, or more accurately, the list of word and phrases WE WISH were banished for “Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness.” This according to the...
