As a writer, and more specifically a technical writer, I’m judged—at least I feel I’m judged—on my writing all the time. I take a lot of pride in writing consistent, grammatically-correct and correctly spelled text all the time. In fact, I will confirm usage and spelling even for emails and short notes. (I should probably put together a personal style guide to save me time.)

I happened to catch Ron Creel’s post on Your Writing Dept Blog referring to Twitter posts and the (high) potential for cutting corners. I really liked his “hallowed ground” in terms of shortcuts he’s not willing to take, for example:

• Using 2 instead of two, to or too (remember, you spell out numbers until you get to ten or 10)
• Thru instead of through (thru just ain’t a word…never was and never will be)

To the first point I’ll add using 4 instead of for, R instead of are, and U instead of you. And to the second, till instead of until (I’ll accept ’til).

Thanks, Ron, I think Twitter, email and instant messaging are changing language for the worse!