Insights archive
Red Pony is a team of writers, editors, Microsoft Office template developers and communications trainers. We have been writing about our areas of expertise for over a decade in our Red Pony Express newsletter.
This collection features the best articles from the last 10 years.
Technology in editing
A little while back I wrote an article called ‘Secrets of the editing trade’. It became one of our most popular posts, so I thought I’d follow up by exploring some of the tools we use at Red Pony in a little more detail.
Is it actually possible to use English incorrectly?
As a writer and editor, my professional existence relies on my ability to use the English language to communicate. But given the constantly evolving nature of English, is it actually possible to ever truly use it incorrectly?
Why simpler isn’t always clearer
A lot of our work at Red Pony involves simplifying technical language to make it accessible to a wider audience, who may not be familiar with industry terminology, be it government acronyms, financial jargon or technobabble. This is work I strongly believe in: if an idea has value, then it deserves to be understood by all of the people who might benefit from it.
Does the language you use change the way you think?
As a writer and editor I’ve always believed that the words you use matter – that all synonyms are not created equal. For example, if you were describing a traffic accident, would you say the cars contacted each other, hit, bumped, collided or smashed?
Why I won’t be reading ‘Go Set a Watchman’
A little while back I was chatting to another dad at a children’s birthday party. He was telling me how he’d just bought a copy of Harper Lee’s new novel, Go Set a Watchman. Angelo talked of his anticipation of re-entering the fictional world of Maycomb County, having greatly enjoyed Harper Lee’s first and, until very recently, only published novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, as a teenager.
Why Word 2016 for Mac is a damp squib
When I installed the preview version of Word 2016 for Mac last week, I did the same thing as I have done for every version since the release of Word 2004 for Mac. And on each occasion I’ve been sorely disappointed.
Using tables
The very act of organising information into a matrix—grouping and labelling rows and columns in a meaningful way—is an important step in interpreting data for your readers. Here are a few tips for making the most of this handy device.
Avoid embarrassment with five easy proofreading tips
Do you have a favourite typo? Enter ‘funny typos’ into Google and you’ll find a seemingly endless list of humorous malapropisms, spoonerisms, misspellings and grammatical errors.
Secrets of the editing trade
Have you ever wondered what an editor’s toolkit looks like? I thought it might be useful to examine some of the tricks of the trade that Red Pony editors use when reviewing your documents.
But is it in the dictionary?
People sometimes get hot under the collar when a word (or particular definition of a word) that they consider to be colloquial or offensive, or just irritating, finds its way into the hallowed halls of the dictionary. They assume that the dictionary is saying it is now okay to use that word in polite company, or in lofty literary endeavour.
Learning from a master
With most things in life, the best way to develop your own skills is to learn from the experts. Writing is no different.
It's a date!
Despite the globalisation of nearly every aspect of our lives, from newspaper ownership to junk food brands, there are still some basic things that we seem incapable of standardising, at least in the English-speaking world. One of these points of difference is how to write dates.
When your number’s up
There are different conventions that you can follow when presenting numbers and measurements in a document. There is no single correct method, but observing some generally accepted principles will make your documents clearer for the reader, and will present your organisation in a more professional light.
Indiana Jones and the creative process
Reading how Lucas, Spielberg and Kasdan evolved their plot, trying different ideas in the process (at first the vital clue is in the form of a map, at one stage Marion is a Nazi sympathiser, and another suggestion has Indy trying to steal the headpiece from her) makes you realise just how complex the creative process can be, and how many ideas must be discarded or edited out along the way.
What the hell am I talking about?
A common piece of advice is to write the way you speak, the idea being that you will then be ‘freed up’ to express yourself without worrying about that intimidating blank page (or screen) before you. This may be useful to get you started, but if you send whatever you’ve written in the same spirit, look out.
Grammar at work – who cares?!
Put simply, when you dash off an email and send it as soon as you’ve typed the final character, without rereading it and checking for errors, you’re saying to your recipient, ‘You are not important to me’. This may be your intention, but if it isn’t, take a breath and read that message one more time before you hit ‘send’.
To correct or not to correct
Tricky situations arise when someone uses a word in the wrong context or when it is pronounced incorrectly. We have all experienced that moment when our great story has been interrupted by someone saying something like, ‘You mean dock the boat, not park the boat, because you park cars, not boats – don’t you?’
PerfectIt! editing software
PerfectIt! from Intelligent Editing claims to locate typos and grammatical errors in Microsoft Word documents – which is what the spell checker does already, I hear you say. Yes, this is true, but it also claims to detect other errors that ‘no spelling or grammar check will discover’. What they are talking about is consistency, which can be one of the biggest headache-sources for editors.
Fix your grammar and improve your business
Sometimes at Red Pony we find ourselves trying to explain to a reluctant client just where the value lies in getting their business writing edited. ‘Perfect grammar ain’t gonna help me sell more widgets!’ I hear them cry.
Using the spell-checker
How often has the spell-checker saved you from a blunder, typo or solecism? How often has it caused one?