Twitter's a fantastic way to learn more about the world around us. Why not use those 140-character tidbits to celebrate your inner (or not-so-inner) grammar geek? I've seen round-ups of Twitter accounts that all Word Nerds should follow (like this one from Mental Floss); below are ten of my all-time favorites.
What Twitter handles do you follow to stay up-to-date on the Word Nerd world? I'd love to hear 'em!
1. @APStylebook
The AP Style tips are always helpful and digestable. Plus, as I've mentioned in a previous OOM post, they host a frequent (and often fascinating) #APStyleChat on their handle.
AP Style tip: A mantel is a shelf. A mantle is a cloak.
— AP Stylebook (@APStylebook) August 21, 20142. @GrammarGirl
Oh, Mignon Fogarty (aka Grammar Girl)—what would I do without you? A constant go-to resource for all-things grammar and usage, Fogarty's Twitter handle is just as useful as her website. Highly recommend.
My handy editing checklist is printable so you can keep it on your desk to use when you're editing. http://t.co/Nw2tpFJNTo
— Mignon Fogarty (@GrammarGirl) August 26, 20143. @Grammarly
This site does a great job of incorporate comics and fun graphics into its tweets, celebrating visually content that will definitely appeal to Word Nerds.
English and math can both be confusing in completely different ways. pic.twitter.com/LgBRyLlxHO
— Grammarly (@Grammarly) September 10, 20144. @bgzimmer
The Wall Street Journal colunnist and executive producer of Vocabulary.com, Zimmer's Twitter feed is chock-full of interesting articles. He does a great job of interacting with other users, RTing relevant content, and tackling current events like Ferguson or the German court ban on Uber.
Linguistic irony as German court bans @Uber, company with German-derived name. My latest for @WSJ: http://t.co/lSdvm3lYw9
— Ben Zimmer (@bgzimmer) September 5, 20145. @OED
As the self-confessed "definitive record of the English language," The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) must be under a lot of pressure when it comes to the curation of their Twitter account. Luckily, they don't disappoint. In addition to their Word of the Day and #DidYouKnow features, they post interesting facts about the origin of words.
'Clue' originally meant a ball of thread. Its current meaning came via the idea of thread being used to guide somebody out of a maze.
— The OED (@OED) August 13, 20146. @HaggardHawks
I certainly learn a lot from this account! Haggard Hawks Words posts tons of weird words and related facts.
Excluding chemical terms, no English word contains more letters Ns than NONANNOUNCEMENT.
— Haggard Hawks Words (@HaggardHawks) September 10, 20147. @ChicagoManual
The Chicago Manual of Style begins its Twitter tips with "Tip." (So simple, but so helpful.)
Tip: Unlike newspapers, names of news services are capitalized but not italicized (Associated Press, Reuters). #CMOS 14.212
— Manual of Style (@ChicagoManual) September 2, 20148. @wayword
This public radio program explores some of the toughest grammar questions (exhibit A below).
Why isn't "Arkansas" pronounced like "Kansas"? http://t.co/hI8aCOQPVR
— A Way with Words (@wayword) August 29, 20149. @wordnik
Wordnik shares great content, including interesting articles, relevant news about books and publishing, and, of course, a Word of the Day.
15 Words Plagued by Unusual Silent Letters http://t.co/7AWHZMfkoV via @mental_floss
— wordnik (@wordnik) September 9, 201410. @TSchnoebelen
So what if I can't pronounce this linguist's last name? He writes some really interesting pieces (e.g., the one below); though not all his tweets are word-related, they're fun to follow.
In which I take on "fav" vs. "fave" http://t.co/058g9IvY4o
— Tyler Schnoebelen (@TSchnoebelen) August 26, 2014
