4 ms·

I take a little issue with the article's quoted claim that "capital letters are speed bumps for the eyes when reading. They should be eliminated where possible.

I take a little issue with the article's quoted claim that "capital letters are speed bumps for the eyes when reading. They should be eliminated where possible." Says who? Capital letters appear all over, for a variety of reasons, and it doesn't cause any issues. Not to mention languages like German which capitalize way more than English.

userbinator 11y ago
The article says "as one marketing website put it", which suggests to me it's nothing but a justification of the recent design trend of making things flat, bland, and "featureless", for lack of a better word. Capital letters make it easy to find proper nouns and sentences when scanning quickly. Their omission is why I find "IM speak" harder to read.
- dietrichepp 11y ago
  IM speak should be limited to short blocks of text. Ideally, you shouldn't be scanning it at all.
d0m 11y ago
Ironically, while reading very quickly your comment, I clearly stopped on Germain because it was different than the rest of the words (capitalized) ;-)
Negative1 11y ago
When speed reading that is one technique to pick out sentence subject. They're not saying capitalization is an "issue", they're merely saying it causes more cognitive load so should be reserved for things that really do give the reader more information.
jakub_h 11y ago
> Not to mention languages like German which capitalize way more than English. And as everyone knows, Germans drive like crazy on their Autobahns, so they're clearly not the type of people who would willingly put speed bumps into their sentences. Therefore, capital letters don't work like speed bumps at all. My logic is bulletproof, case closed!
- odiroot 11y ago
  > And as everyone knows, Germans drive like crazy on their Autobahns Not actually true. They may drive fast but in a really cultural and organized way while (mostly) respecting all the rules.
  - jakub_h 11y ago
    Clearly you haven't been in a car with my German grandfather.
- cm3 11y ago
  This myth may have been true 30 years ago, but if you go on any Autobahn today, you will find there's at most 5km, if at all, of unrestricted sections. Germany is famous for its forest of street signs and speed restrictions on roads are very popular with the administration. There's often config like UNRESTRICTED -> 100km/h -> 80km/h -> 60km/h -> 100km/h. Or the worst: 70km/h -> 100km/h for maybe 150 meters -> 70km/h again. Arguably the 100km/h section could be replaced with no signs aka still 70km/h. But, street signs are popular in Germany and sometimes I have the impression somebody gains by the number of signs posted. Yeah, so no unrestricted autobahns, really. I've found it more relaxed to drive at a constant 120km/h in the Netherlands. No braking and accelerating all the time.
  - rangibaby 11y ago
    Japan has a similar system. Thankfully, speed limits are rarely enforced on highways, and hidden cameras aren't allowed.
    - cm3 11y ago
      I didn't know Japan had limitless highways.
      - rangibaby 11y ago
        I mean similar as a confusing amount of different speed limits on roads. You are way more likely to be stopped for speeding on normal (gratis) roads than highways.
Manishearth 11y ago
When you speed read you pick up phrases and even whole sentences at once. In a language that doesn't use capital letters so much, they stand out and whilst speed reading you do need to slow down a bit and figure out what's weird with the sentence being read. You can no longer just directly pick it up, you have to read it one notch slower and build it. This can be quite noticeable when speed reading. It happens with large words too. As you get used to certain capitalized words (names in a book, common large words, things like Internet) this speed bump decreases, but it's still there for people.
brudgers 11y ago
The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law, usually called the AP Stylebook, is an English grammar style and usage guide created by American journalists working for or connected with the Associated Press over the last century to standardize mass communications. -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AP_Stylebook https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AP_Stylebook I don't see a high degree of relevance of German grammar to a critique of the AP document [though I see it as more relevant than the rules of logosyllabbic languages such as Chinese]. Readers of German have different expectations than readers of American english and a standards document probably ought to take those differences into account because the goal of journalistic writing is to communicate to a particular audience.
maw 11y ago
The Linguistics Journalism Award is a real thing. (Most recent winner announced here: http://www.linguisticsociety.org/news/2015/10/22/arika-okrent-announced-winner-lsa-linguistics-journalism-award http://www.linguisticsociety.org/news/2015/10/22/arika-okren...) Kristen Hare is unlikely to win this year's prize.

userbinator 11y ago

The article says "as one marketing website put it", which suggests to me it's nothing but a justification of the recent design trend of making things flat, bland, and "featureless", for lack of a better word. Capital letters make it easy to find proper nouns and sentences when scanning quickly. Their omission is why I find "IM speak" harder to read.

dietrichepp 11y ago
IM speak should be limited to short blocks of text. Ideally, you shouldn't be scanning it at all.

d0m 11y ago

Ironically, while reading very quickly your comment, I clearly stopped on Germain because it was different than the rest of the words (capitalized) ;-)

Negative1 11y ago

When speed reading that is one technique to pick out sentence subject. They're not saying capitalization is an "issue", they're merely saying it causes more cognitive load so should be reserved for things that really do give the reader more information.

jakub_h 11y ago

> Not to mention languages like German which capitalize way more than English. And as everyone knows, Germans drive like crazy on their Autobahns, so they're clearly not the type of people who would willingly put speed bumps into their sentences. Therefore, capital letters don't work like speed bumps at all. My logic is bulletproof, case closed!

odiroot 11y ago
> And as everyone knows, Germans drive like crazy on their Autobahns Not actually true. They may drive fast but in a really cultural and organized way while (mostly) respecting all the rules.
- jakub_h 11y ago
  Clearly you haven't been in a car with my German grandfather.
cm3 11y ago
This myth may have been true 30 years ago, but if you go on any Autobahn today, you will find there's at most 5km, if at all, of unrestricted sections. Germany is famous for its forest of street signs and speed restrictions on roads are very popular with the administration. There's often config like UNRESTRICTED -> 100km/h -> 80km/h -> 60km/h -> 100km/h. Or the worst: 70km/h -> 100km/h for maybe 150 meters -> 70km/h again. Arguably the 100km/h section could be replaced with no signs aka still 70km/h. But, street signs are popular in Germany and sometimes I have the impression somebody gains by the number of signs posted. Yeah, so no unrestricted autobahns, really. I've found it more relaxed to drive at a constant 120km/h in the Netherlands. No braking and accelerating all the time.
- rangibaby 11y ago
  Japan has a similar system. Thankfully, speed limits are rarely enforced on highways, and hidden cameras aren't allowed.
  - cm3 11y ago
    I didn't know Japan had limitless highways.
    - rangibaby 11y ago
      I mean similar as a confusing amount of different speed limits on roads. You are way more likely to be stopped for speeding on normal (gratis) roads than highways.

Manishearth 11y ago

When you speed read you pick up phrases and even whole sentences at once. In a language that doesn't use capital letters so much, they stand out and whilst speed reading you do need to slow down a bit and figure out what's weird with the sentence being read. You can no longer just directly pick it up, you have to read it one notch slower and build it. This can be quite noticeable when speed reading. It happens with large words too. As you get used to certain capitalized words (names in a book, common large words, things like Internet) this speed bump decreases, but it's still there for people.

brudgers 11y ago

The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law, usually called the AP Stylebook, is an English grammar style and usage guide created by American journalists working for or connected with the Associated Press over the last century to standardize mass communications. -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AP_Stylebook https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AP_Stylebook I don't see a high degree of relevance of German grammar to a critique of the AP document [though I see it as more relevant than the rules of logosyllabbic languages such as Chinese]. Readers of German have different expectations than readers of American english and a standards document probably ought to take those differences into account because the goal of journalistic writing is to communicate to a particular audience.

maw 11y ago

The Linguistics Journalism Award is a real thing. (Most recent winner announced here: http://www.linguisticsociety.org/news/2015/10/22/arika-okrent-announced-winner-lsa-linguistics-journalism-award http://www.linguisticsociety.org/news/2015/10/22/arika-okren...) Kristen Hare is unlikely to win this year's prize.