To think if you're old enough to go to university you should be able to cope with seeing words in all capital letters?

[Bittermints]

metro.co.uk/2018/11/19/lecturers-banned-from-using-capital-letters-to-avoid-upsetting-students-8154365/

The memo says: ‘Despite our best attempts to explain assessment tasks, any lack of clarity can generate anxiety and even discourage students from attempting the assessment at all.’ It also suggested that writing a word in capital letters could make the assignment seem more difficult and therefore worry the students, according to the Express. However, one employee said caps were needed to ensure students don’t miss an important part of the assignment. The lecturer told the paper that despite their students being intelligent, they felt the education system just wants to treat them like children. They added: ‘We are not doing our students any favours with this kind of nonsense.’

No words. Leeds Trinity journalism department.

I actually agree with this. Not for the reasons of not scaring people but because it’s terrible practice to capitalise words

Totally unnecessary to shout directions

🙄

I have mixed views on this kind of thing. On one hand, of course it's ridiculous that teenagers are being pandered to. On the other hand, communication and language do move on and we need to accept that. for young people today, all caps has become established as someone shouting. So I can see how seeing that in their lecture notes might be a bit confusing. It's not considered "okay" to use all caps any more unless you are trying to demonstrate anger and I think that's reasonable.

There have been loads of other examples over the years in different forms eg the ways students and lecturers address each other has changed significantly; it is no longer considered "normal" at most schools for children, particularly boys, to be addressed by their surname only; words that our parents/grandparents thought were perfectly acceptable are now seen as not acceptable at all. Society, expectations, etiquette etc all move on.

This article is trying to link this issue with the concept of students as snowflakes. But I don't think it's the same. I regularly write and receive briefing notes. I think its fair to say that if I saw a sentence or two in all capitals, I'd raise an eyebrow. I wouldn't be upset about it, but I would wonder why the person writing the note is "shouting" and be a bit perplexed at the person's need to be unnecessarily aggressive. I'm nearly 45.

Just reread my first sentence. I don't think it's terrible that teenagers are pandered to in the general sense. I do think we need to be careful about wrapping teenagers in cotton wool though.

I'd get upset if my boss sent emails in all caps, it's extremely aggressive and is essentially shouting at you... it's unnecessary

Although he rest of it is silly

Now I feel old.

I had a dyslexic boss who always handwrote notes in capitals. Would people under 50 now be offended by that?

AM I THE ONLY ONE READING THIS IN A SHOUTY VOICE IN MY HEAD?

Yes. It's just words on a page to me lower or uppercase!

They should have said they were doing it to save ink.

The article doesn't print the full memo. We don't know the context, except what the journo wants us to know/ assume.

I'd get upset if my boss sent emails in all caps, it's extremely aggressive and is essentially shouting at you

Yes but I don't think they are talking about something being written in all capitals, just capitalizing key words or phrases.

But from that quotation it's a single word explaining an assignment, not the entire assignment rubric BEING WRITTEN IN CAPITALS. It's common practice to use occasional caps on assignments and exams rubrics to make sure that students don't miss something crucial -- and believe me, they do.

Our software that allows students to electronically upload assignments used to default to the assignment deadline being midnight on the date the assignment was due in. Central administration asked us to shift the deadline to noon last year, so that, if there were software glitches, the university IT staff would be at work and able to resolve them. Because students were used to the old way, our assignments routinely say 'This essay is due at NOON December 1st 2018'.

That's not shouty.

These days there is no need to type in all caps. Italics and changing text colour do enough to emphasise important bits of text.

I'm an adult, and a writer. I find it very distracting having to read large lengths of text in uppercase. The odd word is fine, but more than a paragraph and I have to concentrate to read it. What's wrong with bolding a word for emphasis? Its not so much about being offended but trying to remove barriers to clarity.

I often use capital letters in notes to other people, there is less chance of misreading my handwriting.

"According to the Express"

What’s wrong with underlining words?

Apart from that, what BlingLoving said.

Also, get a sense the article is designed to be a bit hoary about snowflakery. But if you just conceptualise “no all caps”’as the evolution of what is considered polite conduct, it is really unobjectionable.

Goady not hoary.

Hadalifeonce, yes that was how my boss operated.

It was done as an aid to clarity.

I don't think it can be about emails. Not many people send emails in a professional context using all caps, surely.

Far more likely to be suggesting that if you're typing up an exam paper or a list of essay titles that you don't pick out important words in capitals, e.g. DO NOT TURN THIS EXAM PAPER OVER UNTIL THE INVIGILATOR INSTRUCTS YOU TO DO SO, or 'Answer ALL THREE questions in Part A and ONE question from Part B'.

As for whether that's scary, much that happens in life is scary. Mental health problems are very high amongst our young people. Resilience appears to be an issue. So much pressure to do well at school, so much assessment, so much teaching to the test and not teaching to think. Then there's all the relentless focus on personal appearance and the 24/7 nature of social media. We don't seem to be equipping them to be comfortable in their own skins without comparing themselves with other people.

I'm in my 50s. Anxiety existed when I was young. It's good there's less stigma around it now and people feel more able to say they're anxious about things. But the next step is to learn how to cope with anxiety and not let it restrict our lives.

I doubt the majority of them care about this...It's just another stupid thing to get worked up about.

You don't need to use capital letters these days. You can put text in bold, a larger font or italics instead. Capital letters do look shouty.

Also going back to the deadline someone mentioned, much better to put 1st December 2018 than, December 1st, 2018.

You don't need to use capital letters these days. You can put text in bold, a larger font or italics instead. Capital letters do look shouty. Is that the message they are actually trying to get over?

Also going back to the deadline someone mentioned, much better to put 1st December 2018 than, December 1st, 2018.

There is no need to write anything in all upper case letters. If you do do, you need to rewrite whatever it is you’ve written.