Grammar ...or something

Grammar and spelling. on the Internet.

Capitalization | Spelling

"i guess it's not that unusual... but i just hate my shift key. i only use it when i have to write papers or in other such formal writing." Dartmouth '96

In a recent survey of 100 Dartmouth Blitzmail users (for more information on the breakdown of users who took the questionnaire, see "A look at the participants), I learned that 57% of users do not use capitalization when sending electronic mail to their friends. 85% said that they did use proper capitalization when addressing professors. 17% admitted that they did not use capital letters in blitzes to random strangers and 32% said they didn't use uppercase when sending mail to family members. About of a third said that they didn't capitalize mail either to blitzmail lists or posts to Internet listservs and newsgroups.

This trend of improper capitalization is not isolated to Dartmouth alone. If you read newsgroups or receive mail from a listserv, you will have already realized that there are people out there who just never capitalize in their informal mailings. This laziness could be conceived by purists as simply a slothenly reluctance to actually respect the English language. However, the evidence that at least some of these same people do use capital letters when writing to professors, family and strangers implies that there are situations when capitalization is considered a necessary part of their writing style. Equally, there are times when capitalization is not a priority and can be left out if the writer feels comfortable with that kind of informality. Of course, there are those of us who are just lazy too.

A lack of capitalization affects the overall tone of what is being said (discussed in Textual Tone of Voice) but also the physical look of English. Some would argue that lowercase letters create a more relaxing look to messages. Others say it is for the sake of quick communication that they stopped using capital letters. A Dartmouth senior writes, "Life just got going so fast that if I wanted to send mail to my friends it had to be fast too. So, I fell into the lazy, but fast habit of not using upper-case." Also, lower-case letters are often considered faster to read because they are easier to scan and distinguish from one another. The verticality of capital letters To some extent, one can understand how a sentence or paragraph entirely in lower-case could seem more fluid and conversational, especially when we consider what capitalization is used for elsewhere on the Internet.

The above are all examples of the use of capitalization for emphasis. (These particular examples were taken from actual blitzes.) More specifically, capitalizing is shouting especially if you capitalize entire sentences such as in the third and fourth examples. Capitalization often adds a negative connotation to the words capitalized as well. Perhaps this connotation is applied because as a general rule, shouting is discouraged especially for long periods of time. One usenet user complained, "stop shouting! you're hurting my eyes!" One Dartmouth student said that it was simply more difficult to read something in all upper-case because the letters are less individually unique and therefore take more time to discern from one another. However, capitalization is perceived nearly universally on the Internet as yelling or loud.

The first example above is the use of capitalization to show that he was not happy with the fact that he had a chocolate chip cookie rather than a raisin cookie. The capitalization adds the negative emphasis in text that I added myself with the bold-italic text. Since most electronic mail systems do not support stylistic formatting such as bold and italic, Internet speakers have adopted capitalization to fill some of that stylistic void. The second example is someone laughing rather roaringly. This person wanted to make it very clear that he was laughing very hard at a joke told to him.

Spelling

Another characteristic of electronic mail is interesting spellings. The Dartmouth Postmaster Group and the Blitzmail Development Team receive a handful of requests each term for the addition of a spell-check to the Blitzmail program. Some of the spelling changes are simply misspellings. Since e-mail is so fast, people think fast and type fast as well and don't necessarily go back and proof-read their messages. Other changes in spellings are more affected. Some individuals choose to consistantly substitute letters and other characters for other characters. "S" and "Z"; "E" and "3" and "C" and "K" are immediate examples.

"Kool DUD3Z!"

"Zomeday I'm going to ztop zmoking and juzt try to be zomewhat normal."

"Kan't anyone kikk him off this list?"

"3verything I create is 3DIBL3!!"
Such changes are usually stylistic acquisitions on the part of the writer rather than the result of ignorance as to the difference between an "s" and a "z" or whatnot.

Last modified by Carla C. Emmons 10 March 1996.