by Sue Horner | Sep 28, 2012 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
The English language is definitely a living, growing thing. Oxford Dictionaries Online shows us proof every quarter, as they add new words made popular enough to warrant an entry. Here are some of the ones in the most recent release that I quite like or at least found...
by Sue Horner | Aug 13, 2012 | Most popular posts, The Red Jacket Diaries blog
It was a dark and stormy night… So begins Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s novel Paul Clifford, the inspiration for the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. In tribute, the contest gives awards for the “opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels,” or...
![Friday word nerd fun]()
by Sue Horner | Nov 18, 2011 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Hey, it’s Friday. Time for some silly fun with words! Play Hangman with Oxford English Dictionary. No surprise, expect tricky words. Play Oxford Fortune Cookie on Twitter by tweeting “I want to play OxfordFortuneCookie with @OUPAcademic” and a number...
by Sue Horner | Jul 13, 2011 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Is it just me, or are errors in the printed word slipping through more than ever? I’m not talking about abbreviations in Twitter or texting, I mean words that sort of sound like they make sense, but are slightly to a long way off the mark. Here are some of the...
by Sue Horner | Jun 6, 2011 | Most popular posts, The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Please tell my client that five exclamation points (or exclamation marks, if you prefer) in six sentences is too many. Last week I edited an annual report written by a non-profit group. Knowing the group wanted “donor-centric” copy, I deliberately left...
by Sue Horner | May 31, 2011 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
“Words are not much valued on the Internet, perhaps because it features so many of them.” So reads a line in a recent article by David Streitfeld in The New York Times, called “Funny or Die: Groupon’s Fate Hinges on Words.” The article...
by Sue Horner | Apr 29, 2011 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Don’t you love reading the expressive ways people find to make a point? Some of them make you laugh; some conjure up an appealing image or make an unusual connection. Here are a few of my latest finds, with the part I particularly liked in bold: “If you...
by Sue Horner | Apr 14, 2011 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
I’m late to the game talking about this, but I’ve noticed that a lot of people seem to be upset that the Oxford English Dictionary will now include OMG and LOL, as of the March 24 update. This adds insult to injury, I suppose, after previous additions...
by Sue Horner | Feb 14, 2011 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
In honour of Valentine’s Day, here’s to heartfelt writing: The Toronto Star recently shared some pointers on writing a love letter. Writer Niesha Lofing points to a U.S. survey, in which two-thirds of women respondents aged 18 to 70 said what they most...
by Sue Horner | Feb 8, 2011 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
LinkedIn told me today that 62 of my connections changed jobs in 2010. Wow! While a closer look reveals that some of my colleagues actually just updated their profiles, many did really start new jobs. The economy may be improving! Part of the process of job hunting...
