I read an article today that touched home. A columnist (apparently for Kerry) received an e-mail that said, "GET OVER IT!!!!" from someone who voted for Bush. He wrote about the use of capitals, bolding, and exclamation points in writing, especially e-mails, posts and the like. Obviously, he wanted the use of those methods of screaming to be stopped.

I feel the same way. I just hate it when I get e-mails with bolds or exclamation marks all over the place or words in all caps. I just feel as though the person is yelling at me, and it puts me in a whole different place. Do you feel the same way?

It's obvious that the sender does not know e-mail etiquette. The correct response is, of course, sending it to the delete folder without any further reading. A response is of no use because anyone who ignores manners like that is not likely to be someone whom you could engage in a civilized debate.

K., I noticed, when I was ran the computer lab in a local high school, that many kids just click on the caps lock early on on the keyboard, and never let it up again. I don't really think that folks who do this are really shouting. I think they find it easier to read all caps (though I don't) and easier not having to shift the carriage (metaphorically speaking). They also get rid of that pesky perennial problem: capitalization of nouns and suchlike. I should mention that it's not really an age thing, because I used to teach computer classes to the elderly at a local adult school, and I noticed that a lot of the folks just clicked on the capitals and typed.

Well now! I know that I'm definitely of the internet age. When I first started doing things online I came across some "internet etiquette" as you all mention. All caps means emphasis or shouting. some folks just avoid all caps and use all smalls, which can be confusing for ppl who aren't used to it, but i like it.

I tend to use a lot of odd punctuation, like dashes and parentheses and !!!!!!!!!!. Of course, if you knew me, you'd know why. That's how I talk, often!

I've had friends who've sent me emails in all caps or with other oddities, and I've politely mentioned how I perceive them, and they've modified their behavior. Of course, then I have to hear about how everything I say has an exclamation point!!!

I've worked really hard to make my posts on THIS board more conventionally correct in punctuation, etc. . . . but I have to tell you it's been tricky for me! Thank goodness for the edit button! Oh! There I go again with the !!!!!s!

I agree with sigg. Such a message breaks the rules of netiqette and deserves to be deleted unread.

The use of multiple exclamation marks is particularly annoying to me. One is always sufficient. (Sorry, CW!)

I didn't mean to say that all caps and extraneous exclamation points don't annoy me; they do. I just meant that most times folks are just being clueless rather than malicious.

If someone were to write a whole paragraph in caps, with no odd use of bolds or no multiple exclamation marks, I would naturally think that he was just using all caps. I have seen that too. I also have heard that all caps are harder to read than small letters, though often people don't realize that.

However, if I were to PUT CAPS IN THE MIDDLE of the sentence or paragraph or bold certain words or use multiple exclamation marks (!!!!), I think one is most likely to assume there is some sort of emotion there. Now, like CW, I tend to use a lot of exclamation marks, too. I am trying hard to stop that.

kalleh says, "I also have heard that all caps are harder to read than small letters."

I'd think so too, and I'd think that the standard "mixture" would be easiest of all. But when trying to confirm that on the net, I found surprisingly little information.

I don't have time to search now, but certainly received wisdom is that normal lower-case letters, with capitals at the start of the sentence and normal punctuation is easier to read. I seem to remember a thread either here or on another board that had a piece of text with the letters of all the words jumbled up. It was surprisingly easy to read. However ALL CAPITALS are all of a similar shape, being all the same height, and the content was much harder to decipher.

Text that is all capitals is difficult to read sinply because the clues given by the varying heights of conventional letters are missing.

You will notice that the various "directory scams" that ask you to fill in an order form for an entry in some unknown directory always put the terms and conditions (which always include details of the excessive cost which your signature commits you to pay) in a single-sentence, all upper-case, paragraph with the cost implication buried in its middle.

I find it best to send these back, unsigned, in the reply-paid envelope they send - together with a large parcel of old newspapers! That usually stops repetition!

I'm surprised at you folks. Lowercase letters are a new-fangled invention of folks with too much time on their hands (i.e., monks). Captial letters were good enough for the Romans and they're good enough for me. Oh, dear ... down with minuscules!

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Originally posted by jheem:
Captial letters were good enough for the Romans and they're good enough for me. Oh, dear ... down with minuscules!

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What! No lower case letters? So that's what caused the decline and fall of the Roman Empire!

Tinman

Umm - does size really matter?

Umm - does size really matter?

We're not really discussing size per se, but style.

What! No lower case letters?

Well, they had something very like uncials. Don't know if those qualify ... There's not much handwriting left from the Roman period. Lots of scratched graffiti in Pompey. Some letters and accounts written on very thin slices of wood found in a latrine in Vindolanda.

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Originally posted by jheem:
I'm surprised at you folks. Lowercase letters are a new-fangled invention of folks with too much time on their hands (i.e., monks)

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So what's the whole story, jheem? Who invented miniscules, and when, and why?

People who could write during the late Dark Ages and early Middle Ages, i.e., monks. Basically, as writing moved from stone to paper, letters became less angular and more rounded. Our present-day lowercase letters (a printer's term) are the descendents of these. Wikipedia has a nice article on minuscule.

Not all writing systems distinguish between upper and lowercase letters like we do with the Latin alphabet. Examples: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Devanagari (and other Indian writing systems), Thai, Hebrew, Arabic (though each letter can have up to 4 distinct forms depending on their environment), Amharic, cuneiform (various versions from Sumerian), Egyptian hieroglyphic, etc.

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Originally posted by jheem:
_Umm - does size really matter?_

We're not really discussing size _per se_, but style.

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Important distinction. Style matters a great deal.

All kidding and deviant thoughts aside, this is really a fascinating discussion. Thanks for the info, jheem!

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I just hate it when I get e-mails with bolds or exclamation marks all over the place or words in all caps. I just feel as though the person is yelling at me

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I think this can depend on what the person is trying to express, and the general tone of the rest of their writing. In normal speech, we can easily stress certain words by using our voice - indeed, it's a normal part of English speech - but this potential aid to understanding is lost in writing. I've used bold or italics (or underlining occasionally) to stress a particular point or word in a sentence, and I've received similar e-mails - and I've never felt shouted at; but then, the general tone of these communications I expect is mightily different from the sort Kalleh is talking about here. It just shows how much we rely on non-verbal clues in a conversation, and how careful you have to be when writing - thank goodness for emoticons!

Some people use *asterisks* to stress a word (presumably because not everything can recognise bold or italic text), and although that can eliminate any 'shouting' ambiguity that may be there, I don't like the look of it.

Oh, and I hate reading things all in caps. Not only do I find it uncomfortable and difficult, I'm afraid that I do see it as rude - although I may actually have been adversely influenced in this by the fact that the majority of all-caps communications I've ever read on the Net have been quite belligerent in nature. It is a bit lazy though - how many of these people actually write by hand in all capitals, I wonder?

I hadn't heard lowercase letters described as 'minuscules' before, though of course I've used it to mean 'tiny.' Interesting site, jheem. I have always found Wikipedia articles a little frustrating, though. Have you ever thought that if you clicked all the links in them, and then all the links in the links, and then all the links in the links in the links, and so on, that you'd be clicking for the rest of your life?

Have you ever thought that if you clicked all the links in them, and then all the links in the links, and then all the links in the links in the links, and so on, that you'd be clicking for the rest of your life?

Yes, but that's one of the many attractions of an encyclopedia. Also, remember in wikis, the hyperlinking is done for the author automatically.