Are you writing your emails in all capital letters?

Knowledge resource 671 views 4 replies

Sathish M

Management Accountant

40581 Points Joined June 2010

In writing emails, blog comments, and messages in discussion groups, there are certain rules to observe.

One of them is not to write in all capital letters. Aside from the difficulty in reading messages written in all capital letters, one other important reason why we do not write in all capital letters is social in nature. Writing in all capital letters is like shouting.

This has been a long-standing netiquette for many years. Unfortunately, there are still those who write emails and post comments in ALL CAPS.

ALL CAPS, if used in abundance or in your entire message, have the same effect like shouting – and nagging. They annoy the wits out of the recipients and readers. Your messages lose their effect as they are completely ignored or deleted. Or, in discussion groups, if you repeatedly use ALL CAPS, you run the risk of being banned.

If all you want is to put emphasis on some parts of your message, use ALL CAPS for those important words only. (Or the other technique is to enclose the *important* words with asterisk like in this sentence.)

If your reason for typing in ALL CAPS is because you find pressing the Shift key to capitalise inconvenient and slows you down, why not use all lower case only.

True, you may not pass your English 101 class when you type in all lower cases, but the practice appears more widely accepted than ALL CAPS. And your message may get across easily. And shall we say, amiably. At least to those who find ALL CAPS offensive.

Courtesy: https://romeocayabyab.com

Replies (4)

CA Ashish Pathak

Employed at Cipla Ltd.

2779 Points Joined April 2011

Thank god. I only use Capital Letters when texting my girlfriend ;-)

Sathish M

Management Accountant

40581 Points Joined June 2010

Respected CCI Members,

Kindly go through the below extract of articles from various source, on why usage of CAPITAL LETTERs is considered unprofessional:

The rules of Internet etiquette are not universal, but using all capitals in online communications is discouraged for both technical and social reasons. One of the main reasons why the use of all capitals is discouraged is social in nature. It is difficult to convey emotions, irony, or sarcasm in most electronic communications, so many emailers and chatroom participants use capital letters to express anger or other strong emotions. THE EFFECT IS THE APPEARANCE OF SHOUTING, which may not be the sentiment you wish to convey.

Another reason many online form users dislike all capitals is general readability.

If you USE ALL CAPS in your email or message board posts, you will immediately make yourself seem inexperienced or ignorant. Most experienced computer users consider the use of all capital letters to be the Internet equivalent of shouting.

If you are new to the ways of the Internet, this restriction on the use of capital letters might seem silly and you might dismiss it as unimportant. However, using all capitals in your messages will adversely affect how people perceive you online.