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.

Yes, IT IS SHOUTING. (Sorry) It is aggressive and it is usually a mistake when giving instructions. There are bold font, italics, underlining and varied font sizes for emphasis and highlighting. No need for allcaps.

THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK

My favourite.

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

Far harder to read with certain eye conditions. Much easier to read capitals for everyone.

It's embarrassing that people even believe this crap

It's embarrassing that people even believe this rubbish...

I think it's ridiculous to see PLEASE TURN OVER or SECTION A as indicating aggression if the context isn't aggressive.

And for all those pushing the gentler appeal of italics, underlining and bold, sometimes those get lost along with line-spacing in emails, and in exam papers, which pass through a lot of hands between the final proof stage and printing.

Depends on context. All caps can be harder to read.

The concept of context appears to be receding in a lot of areas.

Isn't it harder to read in all capitals? I was told that on a course about delivering presentations. That all capitals are harder for other people to read because there's less chaoe differentiation? So in that basis I avoid using all capitals in a word generally

However it has ALWAYS BEEN used to clarify the KEY words so they stick out. Surely that's fine? Handouts etc are unlikely to be in colour so agree bold"works fine too.

However don't use shoity words cos the adults can't take it would be ridiculous

Depends on context. All caps can be harder to read.
Do you just mean a bit harder to read? Or do you mean for actual eye conditions?

Yes all capitals are harder to read if you are reading lots of text. But doesn't apply as far as I am aware to a word or two.

I was taught never to use colour to emphasise writing, as many people are colour blind/ have difficulty differentiating.

We write lots of instructions at work, anything relating directly to HEALTH AND SAFETY tends to be in caps, to emphasise that although it doesn't matter that much if you mess up a few other bits and pieces, this is the ONE THING YOU MUST DO TO AVOID KILLING YOUR COLLEAGUES. I've always just thought of it as emphasising the really important bits, hadn't occurred to me it would be read as shouting.

Donald Trump uses capital letters. Be on the right side of history.

Would people under 50 now be offended by that?

Probably because they have chosen to re-assign something, capital letters, and then get hysterical if everyone doesn't follow them.

There are reasons Donald resonates. Just sayin'.

Heath and Safety has a tradition of capitals surely?

To me "DANGER" says authoritative but ultimately caring. I'd translate the tone as IT'S FOR YOUR OWN GOOD, SO PAY ATTENTION.

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

I'm well over 50, and while I am not exactly offended by capitals, I once taught 2 mature students who wrote their shorter assignments and test papers all in capitals when I would much rather they didn't. I assumed they thought their normal handwriting wouldn't be legible though I have no idea whether it would have been or not. Thankfully larger assignments had to be typed which they did normally which was a relief to me.

If you want to draw attention to something, where bold is a possiblity, that is a much better option.

Thanks for your reply Cecily.

It always seemed a bit idiosyncratic to write in capitals but I came to understand why he did it.

However I am interested to know if it would be taken the wrong way by some posters here or if specifically the angry / aggressive label only applies to typed messages.

underline lol, just, lol who underlines theses days, sooo 90's Ha

bold is for important, pay attention

itallics is for titles, (books films etc) quotes and maybe for stress sometimes

CAPITALS ARE SHOUTY

Different colours are not used because black and white printers don't print colour

I find all capitals hard to read, unless it's just a few words in a text, and I'm a very fluent reader.

When we read, the overall shape of a word is much easier to recognise if it's in lower case, in caps, you have to actually look at the letters, if that makes sense.

I used to write essays in capitals as my handwriting wasn't great.

NRPDAD yup, I automatically 'shout' in my head when reading that.

I don't mind things like 'please turn over' or 'danger' in capitals as they're both things you need to notice. Never understood why whole paragraphs need capitalising (unless it helps someone who is dyslexic).

A couple of students probably mentioned it on feedback forms, the uni thought 'oh, let's let everyone know' and a reporter made a big deal of it because they couldn't be arsed to find something else to write about.