Why do CAPITAL LETTERS so annoy us?
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| Thu, 09-03-2009 - 8:06am |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8234637.stm
A New Zealand woman has lost her accounting job after sending "confrontational" e-mails filled with block capitals. So why is it taboo to hit the caps-lock key?
"TO ENSURE YOUR STAFF CLAIM IS PROCESSED AND PAID, PLEASE DO FOLLOW THE BELOW CHECK LIST."
The actual words may seem harmless enough, but their appearance ultimately contributed to the firing of ProCare Health worker Vicki Walker in Auckland.

It was one of a number of e-mails that her employer claimed, at a tribunal, had spread disharmony at work. Some also "provocatively" contained highlighted phrases in bold or red, the tribunal heard.
Most web users know capital letters are a capital offence - they're commonly thought to be online shorthand for screaming. But how did they get this reputation?
Historically, capped letters portrayed a certain formality, says Paul Luna, director of the department of typography and graphic communication at the University of Reading.
"They're associated with things like Roman inscriptions and the formal presentation of text," he says. "They have a certain sort of architectural quality."
The forum in ancient Rome, for instance, showcased the emperors' great deeds written in capital letters.
'Make page grey'
While capitals were reserved for the best and the greatest, lowercase letters in the Latin alphabet - which English is based on - developed as a faster way to write, says Mr Luna.
Good Word Guide
And over time, capitals have become a way to set text apart - whether to articulate the beginning of a new sentence or to mark a major heading in a book. While they were sometimes used for emphasis, typographers typically didn't like the look of the dense text blocks that make the page appear grey, says Mr Luna.
In the print-based world, other options, like bold and italics, became more common, leaving capital letters for proper nouns and sentence beginnings. But the internet changed all that, he says.
The high resolution of a printed page is enough to make bold and italics stand out, but the lower quality of a screen often requires people to revert to the caps-lock key to make a point.
And while printing houses and publishing companies have traditionally regulated the use of capitalisation, the web is a bit of a free-for-all, says Martin Manser, author of the Good Word Guide.
"The thing about e-mail is that there's no particular etiquette. The whole thing is more fluid," he says. "In written letters, there are definite conventions that are right or wrong."
Ultimately, in the rushed world of online communication, all-caps has become a bit of a "lazy" shorthand for yelling - it's faster than finding another way to convey excitement or agitation. But the recipient feels like they are being shouted at.
And is there also a physical reason? Are all of those rectangular letters hard on the eyes?
Some studies say yes - indicating that people read by recognizing the shapes of letters within words and that the lowercase versions have more shape differentiations than block capitals.
But Mr Luna says this is "nonsense" - pointing to new research that has found capitals and lower-case letters make no real difference. Instead, the caps-lock key has become a tool for writers.
"It's a great aid to articulating a message, really," he says.
And if that means the occasional CAPITAL e-mail, then so be it.



LOL! I hate reading things that are in all caps. It wasn't until I joined message boards that I realized how much it is like yelling (it really adds some color to the tone). I will confess to using capital letters to emphasize a specific word because I don't have the capability of bolding or italicizing a word on iVillage with this particular browser, but I think that is different than all caps.
But Mr Luna says this is "nonsense" - pointing to new research that has found capitals and lower-case letters make no real difference.
I disagree with Mr. Luna.
"I hate reading things that are in all caps."
Me too. I agree it really does denote yelling/anger.
Again I agree using them only for emphasis is different.
"I disagree with Mr. Luna.'
I do too. Maybe he doesn't post on message boards. :)
A poster, on another board, used very large
Any letter, e-mail, or post which is typed totally in caps gives me the impression that the writer is lazy and doesn't want to bother with the effort it takes to shift between cases.
I've been posting online now for over ten years and have become sensitized to the Web sentiment correlating caps with shouting. Kinda flinch when I see all-caps e-mails or posts.
Am thinking that Ms Walker may have had repeated exposure to individuals who neglected to fully read and follow directions. "Provocative" for her to try to get a message through LOUD AND CLEAR? Not IMHO!
BTW, I don't agree with Mr. Luna. If you ask a reading teacher, he or she will tell you that about the Dolch* words--those words which beginners recognize by shape, as opposed to sounding the words out. If sight recognition took place in lower case, a all-caps document is probably going to slow a reader down.
*Sight Words (sometimes called the Dolch Word List) are some of the most frequently used words in the English language. Even though they number only about 200, Sight Words comprise approximately 50 to 70 percent of any given general, non-technical text. Therefore, teaching Sight Words as early as possible is considered a crucial part of elementary education.
http://www.quiz-tree.com/Sight-Words_main.html
Jabberwocka
"repeated exposure to individuals who neglected to fully read and follow directions"
All to often I'm afraid. I thought it was my circle of friends mostly over 50.