SAT time!

Speaking of Twitter... Last weekend I asked my Twitter followers and Facebook friends to complete my version of the iconic SAT question:

Finish the SAT question: Twitter is to writing as:________ is to _______?

The responses ran the gamut, ranging from the serious assessment of the Tweet as an art form to the downright hilarious and/or the scathing.

These are some of my favorites...

Twitter is to writing as...

• ...as Instant is to Coffee.  (Denny Hitzman)
• ...as chaff is to wheat. (Dale Estey)
• ...as "cultural" is to "phenomenon" (Ron Curren)
• ...as the SAT is to testing. (Elspeth)
• ...as American Idol is to singing. (Scott Perkins... one of the other ones)
• ...as 100 calorie pack twinkies are to normal sized twinkies.(JoNell Franz)
• ...as anonymous quickie with a hooker is to sex. (Dre Sargent)
• ...as babbles are to press conferences. (Heather Glass)
• ...as feces is to food. (Rydell)
• ...as top ramen is to cooking. (Gwen A.)
• ...as taking drugs is to your brain.  (Sheila Murphy-Nelson)
• ...as a pygmy donkey is to a unicorn. (Rachael Heiner)
• ...as a penny dreadful is to William Shakespeare. (Rex King... yes that's his real name, trust me.)
• ...as Uwe Boll is to moviemaking. (Ray Axmann)

My favorite though, goes to Todd X of the blog Iced Tea & Sarcasm, who appreciates the nuance and brevity of writing within the 140 character limitations...

• ...as "the net" is to "tennis." It's just another form and the parameters help dictate the form.

All in all, I think I agree with Todd.  There's a challenge to writing within guidelines, especially limitations of length.