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I'm with you there, I'm pretty anal about keeping my texts as correct as possible. Proper grammar, capitalization, and spelling make messages so much easier to

I'm with you there, I'm pretty anal about keeping my texts as correct as possible. Proper grammar, capitalization, and spelling make messages so much easier to read and comprehend, so why wouldn't you take the extra few seconds to make sure they're correctly formatted? Especially these days, when your phone will auto-correct mistakes for you!

chrismonsanto 13y ago
I much prefer communicating without capital letters. I have a hand injury and I find any extra keystrokes to be annoying. For IRC or chat, it doesn't make sense to use capitalization or most punctuation. The beginning of the line serves as a delimiter between messages; capitalization is redundant in this capacity. Likewise, the end of the line serves a similar purpose, which makes periods (generally) redundant. The addition of a period in this medium adds extra emphasis to the message, which is often interpreted as aggressiveness (hence this article). Also, it is unfair to associate lack of capitalization with poor grammar and spelling. Poor grammar is associated with lack of education. Lack of capitalization should not be! You probably were not implying an association, but many others I have spoken to over the years have. (For some reason, I've had a lot of conversations about this stuff...)
- SheepSlapper 13y ago
  Written communication is hard, and one of the keys to good written communication is leaving as little room for misunderstanding as possible. Using proper capitalization, spelling, and grammar are a few of the ways you can make your text more readable and less prone to misinterpretation. That being said, there are plenty of reason to eschew writing best practices, and you have to be pragmatic about it (for your own sanity, if nothing else). Have a hand injury? Skip the shift key once in a while if it saves you some pain. You're trading readability for speed/comfort/whatever, but depending on the situation that might be the better decision.

chrismonsanto 13y ago

I much prefer communicating without capital letters. I have a hand injury and I find any extra keystrokes to be annoying. For IRC or chat, it doesn't make sense to use capitalization or most punctuation. The beginning of the line serves as a delimiter between messages; capitalization is redundant in this capacity. Likewise, the end of the line serves a similar purpose, which makes periods (generally) redundant. The addition of a period in this medium adds extra emphasis to the message, which is often interpreted as aggressiveness (hence this article). Also, it is unfair to associate lack of capitalization with poor grammar and spelling. Poor grammar is associated with lack of education. Lack of capitalization should not be! You probably were not implying an association, but many others I have spoken to over the years have. (For some reason, I've had a lot of conversations about this stuff...)

SheepSlapper 13y ago
Written communication is hard, and one of the keys to good written communication is leaving as little room for misunderstanding as possible. Using proper capitalization, spelling, and grammar are a few of the ways you can make your text more readable and less prone to misinterpretation. That being said, there are plenty of reason to eschew writing best practices, and you have to be pragmatic about it (for your own sanity, if nothing else). Have a hand injury? Skip the shift key once in a while if it saves you some pain. You're trading readability for speed/comfort/whatever, but depending on the situation that might be the better decision.