New York Times Rules: Out With the 'Tweets'
United Press International
Jun 14, 2010
New York Times readers who come across the word "tweet" will know they are reading about birds, at least for the foreseeable future.
Phil Corbett, the Times standards editor, laid down the law this week in a memo, the New York-based Web site, The Awl, reported.
"Some social-media fans may disagree, but outside of ornithological contexts, 'tweet' has not yet achieved the status of standard English," Corbett wrote. "And standard English is what we should use in news articles."
Corbett said "tweet," whether used as a verb for the act of sending a Twitter message or a noun for the message itself, is a colloquialism, a neologism and jargon. The Times tries to avoid words that are any one of those things, let alone all three.
But he said the word had popped up 18 times in a single month in the Times.
Corbett also wondered if "tweets" have staying power: "Someday, 'tweet' may be as common as 'e-mail.' Or another service may elbow Twitter aside next year, and 'tweet' may fade into oblivion."
----
----
Sound Off...What do you think? Join the discussion
Copyright 2012 by United Press International
