I have been accused by many of being picky when it comes to words. Frankly it is a badge I wear with pride. I firmly believe that there are no degrees of perfection nor uniqueness. You cannot be surrounded on three sides any more than a product can be both new and improved.
Lately it has become popular in the media to refer to the publication of short messages on Twitter as Tweeting out. Not merely Tweeting, but Tweeting out. It seems redundant to me. You cannot Tweet in. To refer to the action as Tweeting seems to suffice in my opinion.
Sadly the adherence to both rules of grammar and basic logic are long lost. More’s the pity.
These things become part of the current lexicon, much like the reference to a reporter at the scene of an event being referred to as ‘on the ground’. I believe that most reporters, with the exception of those on airplanes or levitating, are on the ground. Of course ‘on the ground’ now means on site.
So let me jump on my hobbyhorse early in the Tweeting out era and suggest, strongly, that we revert to saying ‘he/she Tweeted’ and not Tweeted out. Sometimes less is more; there are God knows how many words available, we must not feel we need to use as many as possible.
