Please Don’t SHOUT as You Type!
One of my pet peeves is seeing emails and forum posts typed entirely in capital letters. It is not only difficult to read, but also comes across as aggression and shouting.
I read an article on the BBC News website today, which opens up debate on whether or not one should leave the Caps Lock off, when typing email correspondence. The article reports that ProCare Health worker Vicki Walker from Auckland, was sacked for “spreading disharmony at work” by sending colleagues emails in capital letters. Some emails also contained “provocative” text in bold or red.
However, Paul Luna, director of the department of typography and graphic communication at the University of Reading, describes complaints that capital letters are harder to read as “nonsense”. He points 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.”
Much as I am irritated by receiving emails in the offending capital letters, I do not feel that it is a sacking offence. I get equally irritated by emails that are entirely in lower case with no punctuation. Such emails are even harder to decipher than the offending “Caps Lock” ones.
While there is no strict etiquette regarding the writing of emails, I think it’s only fair to try to make your emails ‘reader-friendly’.
What do you think? Do you get as irritated by indecipherable emails as I do? Or are you one of the offenders, with a permanent Caps Lock?
