Opinion: NY Times 2 Twitter: No Tweet here
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Twitter is a new social medium that places top value on brevity. Not even the richest jerks get more than the same 140 characters u & I get.
There, that first sentence was exactly how much space everyone gets per Tweet on Twitter. It’s very popular, w/300,000 new ppl enrollg ea day 2 use Twitterese 2 share recipes, thots, feelgs, info, gags, tips, ads, even NSFW wds like #$%^ u & &$ urs.
Not everyone hearts Twitter. OK. Not every 1 reads nytimes either. Not known 4 brevity those ppl.
Onward and onward roll New York Times explanatory newspaper sentences, which can have countless clauses like this -- even dashed inserts like this -- and graphs and charts too plus online links to Civil War battles whose names resemble words in the story until reels the reader’s mind over graduate school words and dictionary he or she seeks. Re-reading may b reqd. Home delivery now avail in Zipcodes w/lge incomes & no homeless.
Gr8.
Now 1 nyt ed has ruled Tweet not real wd. In a wonderfully characteristic internal NYT memo, acquired by theawl.com here, the paper’s standards editor, Phil Corbett, banned Twitter words. Insufficiently Ivy League.
Here’s his reasoning. We’ll share 642 of Corbett’s abundant characters:
Some social-media fans may disagree, but outside of ornithological contexts, ‘tweet’ has not yet achieved the status of standard English. And standard English is what we should use in news articles. Except for special effect, we try to avoid colloquialisms, neologisms and jargon. And ‘tweet’ - as a noun or a verb, referring to messages on Twitter - is all three. Yet it has appeared 18 times in articles in the past month, in a range of sections. Of course, new technology terms sprout and spread faster than ever. And we don’t want to seem paleolithic. But we favor established usage and ordinary words over the latest jargon or buzzwords.
WTH. Twitter will survive. NYT 2 phaps. Paper famous 4 resistg Ms 4 long time 2. ROFL
Wise Stephen Colbert outraged 2. Filed video rpt below. Watch. LOL Then Tweet this link 2 all ur BFs: http://bit.ly/ae5xYw
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Brevity Is the Soul of Twit | ||||
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-- Andrew Malcolm
Speaking of Twitter, folo The Ticket @latimestot