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 since 2009 in our Red Pony Express newsletter.
This collection features a selection of our best articles.
The real magic of a letter to Santa
In a time when communication is primarily digital, and mostly informal, the seemingly simple act of writing a letter to Santa retains a special significance. Children once wrote regularly to people such as grandparents, other family members and penfriends. Now, a letter to Santa may be a child’s only experience of formal correspondence.
Words are cheap but jargon comes at a cost
Most professions and industries have their own jargon – words and phrases that have a specific meaning within a particular group but a different meaning (or none at all) outside the group. To those who use it regularly, jargon can be inclusive. It’s the kind of language you hear at […]
The genius of George Orwell
Back when I was a university student contemplating a topic for my English Literature Honours thesis, I thought it might be interesting to examine the early works of George Orwell, one of my favourite writers at the time. After twelve months of immersing myself in biographies, literacy criticism, opinion pieces and pretty much the entire […]
The generosity of plain English
Red Pony’s business writing trainer describes plain English writing as ‘putting the extra work in so your reader doesn’t have to’. Putting that extra effort in is an act of generosity towards your reader – it’s a kindness.
Leading the reading: wayfinding in document design
‘Wayfinding refers to information systems that guide people through a physical environment and enhance their understanding and experience of the space.’
Are print dictionaries dying? And should we care?
In 2010, the Oxford English Dictionary announced that its next edition would probably never be printed, but would instead only be available online. The 20-volume dictionary is the most comprehensive in the world, but that much data can now be stored on a device the size of a pencil case.
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.
Don’t lead your readers up the garden path
‘The government plans to raise taxes were defeated.’ Did you stumble over that sentence? If you’re like most people, you read ‘government’ as a noun and ‘plans’ as a verb, and when you got to ‘were defeated’, the sentence suddenly made no sense, and you had to go back and read it again.
The Clayton’s apology
When we do the wrong thing, whether intentionally or unintentionally, we should apologise, particularly to any person we have harmed in some way. Few people will argue with this in theory. But some apologies are not apologies.
Beware the dangling modifier
What’s wrong with these sentences?
Yesterday, after conferring with my senior national security advisers and following extensive consultations with our coalition partners, Saddam Hussein was given one last chance. (President Bush in the Chicago Tribune, 1991)
Driving home recently, a thick pall of smoke turned out to be Deepak’s bungalow, well alight.
Political correctness—a dirty word?
The term ‘politically correct’ or ‘PC’ is like a certain brand of Scandinavian pastry: it has layer upon layer of meaning. And between those flaky strata we find a weird melange of judgement, self-righteousness, empathy and nervousness.
Time to get with the program/me
Under the new dispensation of Prime Minister Tony Abbott, there are going to be a few changes. But here at Red Pony we’ll restrict our discussion to the orthographical changes (that’s ‘spelling’ to you and me).
For ‘whom’, the bell tolls
When was the last time you wrote ‘whom’? When was the last time you said it? I’ll bet the former happened more recently than the latter. As any change in the spoken language is invariably the precursor to a change in the written language, the writing has been on the wall — so to speak — for ‘whom’ for quite some time.
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.
Keep it simple, stupid – it's the law
Do you ever find yourself wading through a swamp of verbal sludge issued from a torpid governmental organ and wonder, ‘Does it have to be this complicated?’ The answer is ‘no’ – in fact, in the USA it’s now illegal to be.
The passive voice
The passive voice gets a bad press. From Don Watson to the Microsoft Word green squiggle under so many of our sentences, it has no shortage of critics. But if it’s so bad, what’s it doing in the English language anyway?
Starting an argument
When you know what you want to say—when you’ve taken the time to get your thoughts clear in your own mind—it becomes a far simpler matter to organise those thoughts on the page.
Writing for the web
While the goal in writing for the web is the same as for any other medium (convey your message clearly to your audience), there are a few differences to keep in mind.
Politics and the English language
In 1946, George Orwell wrote one of the most prescient and influential essays, 'Politics and the English language’. In it he asserts that lazy writing prevents critical thought and ultimately leads to a corruption of political life.