Daily tweets on writing, in the spirit (and sometimes the words) of Fowler's Modern English Usage but chiefly for American writers. Alter ego of @MatthewJFranck
Joined April 2014
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18 Nov 2016
E.g., “The sentence that I write here, which may or may not include both kinds of clauses, should conform to this rule." x.com/HenryWFowler/status/79…
18 Nov 2016
When using relative pronouns in adjectival clauses, use "that" in restrictive clauses and "which" in non-restrictive ones.
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This, @nytopinion, is an occasion for using “distinctive.” (The use of “distinct” in its place seems increasingly common.) nytimes.com/2026/06/08/opini…
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My regular condition.
OED #WordOfTheDay: unmorrised, adj.
Not dressed or prepared for morris dancing.
View the entry: oxford.ly/3QgcI0L
ALT The OED definition of \u2018unmorrised\u2019, today\u2019s word of the day.\n
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This needless variant falls amid the three stools of ascent, ascension, and ascendancy, which have subtly different meanings. Here you want the last of the three, @wsj. wsj.com/us-news/law/supreme-…
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This modifier gives me a dull ache, @nytopinion, as I ponder how a flaw can be sharp. nytimes.com/2026/06/09/opini…
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An alert friend sends me this sad example of the declension of declensions. cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datasto…
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This ill-made opening sentence,@theatlantic, tells the reader that Hamilton wrote the first Federalist essay at the beginning of the Constitutional Convention. The author knows better. The Convention began in May, and Hamilton wrote this in October. theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0…
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A pronoun-antecedent disagreement, @wsjbooks. Since the pronoun appears in the quotation, either change the antecedent to something singular, or substitute a bracketed “[their].” wsj.com/arts-culture/books/t…
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Terrible mixing of metaphors, @thedispatch. How does an ebb reach a tipping point? thedispatch.com/article/ten-…
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“”Their system ensured that Spartan males” … what, @wsjbooks? The thought is unfinished because its conclusion, “were equals,” was sawed off and marooned in the parenthetical. (Also, change the godawful verb “serviced” to “served.”) wsj.com/arts-culture/books/s…
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And this writer for three decades at America’s leading newspaper pretentiously chooses the British spelling of “jail.”
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This is a mess, @nytimes. Alarms, airbags, and sirens are the three things, but your sentence says alarms alone are the three things, just like the other two. nytimes.com/2026/05/21/movie…
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