.:to use or not:.
Over the past years, I have styled most of my informal writing without the use of captial letters. Why? I had a teacher in my college days named Karen Chang. She taught a Photoshop class, and I remember how she used to write everything in lowercase. When asked why, I believe she said something about how studies had been done that showed lowercase writing was easier to read. Ever since then, I’ve done that. As to whether or not that’s true, I don’t know. I can’t seem to find any kind of proof out there when looking around on the web. Whatever the case, I’ve definitely gotten used to it, and I guess I haven’t even thought about…until recently.
Because I was very proud of my profound discovery of the cheeseburger in a can, I decided that I might send it out to a few friends at work so they too could get a little chuckle. Instead of the expected chuckle, I got one response that said something to the effect of, “Too bad the author doesn’t understand the use of caps,” or something of that nature. At first, I thought, “OK. Whatever,” and just responded that it was a style thing. Then another guy responded saying that he agreed with guy #1, and even went so far as to say that it was ‘negligence’.
?
I’ve been thinking about it ever since. Is it really that big of a deal? Does it make that big of a difference in your ability or your wanting to read what’s there if something is not written ‘correctly’? It’s not like I don’t use any punctuation or anything; I just don’t use caps. It’s interesting to note that both of them are in their late thirties. Does age have something to do with it?
Any thoughts from the outside on this one?
“Is it really that big of a deal?”
Was it a cover letter on your resume? Appeal to a judge arguing you deserve to be spared jail time? Perhaps asking a stranger for a favor, like a kidney?
The answer to my questions and yours are one and the same
I’ve been struggling with the same thing and have decided to move back to capitalization. As a designer and advocate of typography, I’ve really let myself slip. When scanning lines of type, capital letters help your brain break sentences apart, making it much easier to scan and interpret. I’ll still roll with just undercase in IM’s and other communications that are a line or two and informal.
Capitalization went the way of writing letters to pen-pals and using snail mail to get it there. Writing on the internet in realms such as a blog is so much more transient than a hand-written or printed letter. The topic which pisses me off so much more than capitalization is definitely the IM-speak. I thnk that abbr evrything in stuff othr than txting is rediculous, srsly. I hate when people send emails or IMs using “l8r”, “y” for yes, and my least favorite “thx”. That’s definitely something that leans towards negligence and usually is harder to create and read than the time it saves.
Capitalization is for squares, man. being proper in the right situation is fine, like a resume or in a letter to your grandma or something… but being able to use different casing at my own discretion allows me to put some personality in my emails/blog comments. BIG DEAL if you’re not proper when sending some funny site to someone… if they can’t read lowercase, they probably won’t get the joke anyway. it’s true, i promise.
Since when were you someone to conform? Keep being you, andy. It’s what makes you who you are, and that’s what we love about you. You’re creative and you’re brilliant. You embrace change yet stand firm in your identity. You’ve told me to not let others define me, so I remind you. Forget what others think. You be who you are and express yourself YOUR way. it stands out. it’s different. it’s you.
well…brilliant is a pretty huge stretch.. .:) but nice of you to say nonetheless. i have a tendency to agree with all of you. lowercase is just something i’ve done for a very long time. i think i might just try uppercase for awhile just for kicks. again…i’m actually seriously curious about the whole age thing. i have a tendency to find that there are certain points where it comes to the internet where certain age ranges tend to not embrace some of the more commonly seen practices…such as using lowercase…or text messaging. text messaging is one where i’m right on the cusp of, i think. i’m not a huge fan of the text message…
If you have to make a choice between ALL-CAPS and all-lowercase, you already know the answer, but your content here is not just poetry, a quick note to a friend, or a logo. You’re writing multiple paragraphs that are intended for a wide range of people to read. Capitalizing the first letter of a sentence gives the reader a quick, easy to find clue that a sentence is beginning. If it’s all lowercase, you have to find the period at the end of a sentence, scanning from the beginning of the paragraph. I skip around every once in a while when I’m reading to hone in on key ideas, and anything the writer can do to emphasize their ideas helps me out.
In the end, though, it boils down to who your intended audience is, and how you feel like expressing yourself, so whatever floats your boat.