MetaChat - Pet Peeve Monday-Tuesday

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19 August 2008

Pet Peeve Monday-Tuesday Why do some people (especially writers and academics) post on line (bulletin boards, list servs, whatever) without capital letters at the beginning of the their sentences? I find it *really* hard to read. The same people tend to fail to include paragraph breaks. →[More:]

Does anyone else get bugged by that?? It seems so inconsiderate of the reader, or, at least, a reader like me who finds it difficult. Is there some reason?

Anyway -- what bugs you?

post by: Claudia_SF at: 03:04 | 17 comments

Yes that bugs me - I just skip a whole block of text usually.

posted by gomichild 19 August | 03:28

People who use txtspk when they are not texting. Also, blogs that are 100% snarkasm; come up for air once in a while, guys.

I rarely read blogs that don't use paragraph breaks. I have noticed though that such blogs often have few comments.

posted by Ardiril 19 August | 03:41

Theres a newspaper reporter in my neighborhood that posts like that to the neighborhood mailing list. Her posts never have any capitalization or punctuation; her writing in the local paper is very good so she must just see online communication as not worth writing well for.

posted by octothorpe 19 August | 05:44

She could also have a good editor who doesn't get paid to screen the blog.

I know I'm guilty of this a lot, especially when chatting with folks. Mostly it's because I'm constantly correcting my typing that hitting that shift really is a pain.

I'm right with you on paragraphs, though.

One thing I hate reading is email or posts with periods everywhere.......I just hate it,,,,,,,and commas? What is up with that?

posted by lysdexic 19 August | 06:17

^agreed to all of the above. Also, I hate the expression "state of the art". W.T.F. does that even mean?

posted by chewatadistance 19 August | 06:46

I don't mind the lack of capital letters (I'm often times guilty of that when posting via my iPhone that sometimes doesn't start new sentences with a capital letter and I don't go back... Also, I must confess my old blog had a blurb in the style sheet transforming everything to lower case. My reason was to give the blog a feeling of casualness and to stop the idiots from posting comments in all caps).

But I do mind the txt spk. I don't even use it when I'm doing SMS. Prince can use U instead of you, no one else can.

My biggest peeve is the misuse of apostrophes. You know the Grocer's Apostrophe. It gets my goat.

posted by birdherder 19 August | 08:37

i eschew paragraph breaks and capital letters because those are orthographic holdovers from the patriarchy. seriously. capital letters encourage you to view one letter as somehow bigger or better than its neighbor. and we can't have that in this brave new world, can we? by writing in this manner, i make a small contribution towards smashing the state, towards smashing capitalism.

posted by jason's_planet 19 August | 08:43

Broken pinkies. Shift keys can hurt!

posted by rmless2 19 August | 08:44

I, too, have a hard time taking anyone seriously who does not use capital letters at the beginning of their sentences. They post relationship questions on AskMeta - "help me im 35 and i dont think my bf loves me what do I do???" - and I just can't believe them. Anyone who claims to be older than me who can't use capital letters is lying and possibly crazy.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 19 August | 09:21

Why did the puppy pee in the kitchen SIX FEET from the open door to the back yard while I was standing there coaxing her outside.

Yes, I KNOW you had a stressful vet appointment yesterday, but that was forever ago in puppy memory, and I KNOW you're very tired and had to stretch five times on your way from the bedroom to the kitchen. Lord knows I've been extremely stressed and tired before, but I have always made it to the potty on time and I know you can too, dammit.

It's not even 6.30a, and already my day is full of grump. Thank you, dogbutt.

(I may be taking the question too literally, but dammit I've only been awake 10 minutes and grrrr.)

posted by rhapsodie 19 August | 09:36

i do not use capital letters or paragraph breaks because i am a special snowflake genius. the use of all lowercase letters makes me, like, artsy an' shit.

posted by jason's_planet 19 August | 09:49

Not using capitals and paragraphs is the equivalent of talking with your mouthful with your back turned to the listener.

posted by jrossi4r 19 August | 10:17

Mouth full, that is.

posted by jrossi4r 19 August | 10:20

An acquaintance of mine is a professional journalist and never capitalizes in her e-mails. I don't get it.

posted by grouse 19 August | 11:20

The capitalization thing is rampant. I'm alright with it in email and other casual environments, but particularly when someone on MeFi is trying to sound authoritative, it affects their credibility. Same goes for refusing to use punctuation
or for using paragraph breaks to end each sentence
sort of like this

I do sometimes eschew caps when I write creatively, though. I can't explain it but it has to do with the the aesthetic, and it depends on what I'm expressing.

posted by loiseau 19 August | 13:48

I like the implications of "talking with your mouthful". I'm stealing that for my logpile.

posted by Ardiril 19 August | 14:03

I suspect the lack of capitals is due, at least in part, to Crackberries.

I understand, but I don't sympathize. Anytime I see it, I lose a little respect for the sender, even if it's the tiniest bit. All these damn kids are destroying our language with their L3370¢!7Y, and we don't need the water flowing into the cabin from above deck as well.

posted by SpiffyRob 19 August | 14:50

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