Right. Where I'm from, lack of punctuation and capitalization indicates less serious discussion, irony, sarcasm, etc. A non-serious "mood". If someone starts using correct grammar (e.g. I instead of i, periods, commas for introductory phrases and splices) it's an indication of the serious "mood" and to start a more thoughtful discussion.
It's probably a good idea to tell people this instead of just assuming everyone knows... but it's kind of engrained in the culture of the communities I'm in.
I did not say anything about grammar or even punctuation (in general). I have voiced a specific concern of a complete disregard of a proper capitalization. If you call it a "self-expressive style", well, it is your opinion and, of course, you are as entitled to one as everyone else. However, I highly doubt that most people would agree with your characterization of this as a "style". I welcome diversity of self-expression, but I would expect it to be in the form of writing itself (content and/or writing style) and/or visual aids (images), but not in ignoring expected traditional punctuation. BTW, the issue here includes lack of capitalization not only for the first word in a sentence, but also for the pronoun "I".
I interpret the lack of capitalization and correct punctuation as a sociopathic desire to undermine the very foundation of modern civilization--by destroying written language as a medium of communication. So in a way, I am pissed when I end a sentence with a period: I'm pissed at all the people who can't be bothered to use one. And when I use colons and em dashes, that should be interpreted as hate crimes.
> In code or short tweets, fine, but in composition of an essay it looks unscholarly and pretentious.
I think a good general rule is: for a single sentence, not capitalizing the first letter (and not using a period) is fine. Longer than that and it both makes parsing more difficult and looks strongly like an affectation. There is a practical purpose for sentence start/end punctuation.
Punctuation, capital letters, proper spelling, etc. exist for a reason: They're a standardized set of tools for making our writing clearer and easier to read. In a professional setting, they also indicate a level of thoughtfulness and attention to detail. In my mind, at least.
If you can write clearly without using these tools or if you're writing in a situation where style is more important than clarity, fine. Go nuts.
If you just can't be bothered to make, like, five extra keypresses... C'mon, man.
It's a mistake to think of "correct punctuation" as some sort of abstract goal to attain. Communication is about making yourself understood, and punctuation is a means to that end. When people expect a period to mean one thing because most people use a period in that fashion then what do you accomplish by defecting from that common usage?
In meatspace you can rely on nonverbal cues, online you cannot. So if we can overload the semantics of a period and of capital letters to help compensate for the lack of nonverbal communication, all the better. Full sentences and proper grammar don't go away -- they just take on a different meaning. Clear communication is hard enough as is, why complicate matters further by limiting yourself to perfect sentences and lose out on the extra nuance?
Periods are not optional in readable English. Period. The rest, spelling, capitalization, are all there for the same reason -- readability.
Seeing an unpunctuated piece of writing doesn't make me think "Gee, good thing they're not mad at me", it makes me think "Gee, they didn't care enough to make this readable". Which, for some circumstances, is probably fine. I apologize for the "uneducated" remark. You just write differently (albeit only in certain informal contexts apparently) than any literate person I know.
The rest of the punctuation-emotion the short article described predates the internet and texting, like using question marks if you're unsure (I turn left here?), or exclamation points for emphasis (Yes!!). What I'm disputing is the "don't bother using a period if you're not angry" phenomenon. It's not my experience that literate adults do this. You and the article disagree. Fair enough. Learn something new everyday.
I'm with you. This one at least has punctuation, but the lack of capitals makes it materially harder to read and therefore makes me less likely to put the effort in to read it. When people write like this and don't even use punctuation, I stop reading as soon as I encounter the first missing full stop I have to mentally insert myself.
It's funny the way language is evolving; even things like how you use punctuation and capitalization now has meaning.
Like 20 years ago, if I was sending an IM or something, I would always just write like I'm writing here. But now, if I'm sending someone a text or slack or something, I always feel like it's more casual/less try hard if it's lowercase with relaxed punctuation. (That's just my style, I don't expect others to match). If I end a text with a period and everything properly capitalized, I almost feel like I'm being too formal. (Admittedly, some people probably just think I'm sloppy and lazy!) I never got into writing "u" or "ur" though. For some reason those still bug me.
I know a lot of people don't like memes or gifs, but actually, I think they're great. Sometimes it's much more effective to express a sentiment with an image instead of a word or phrase.
I always feel a little cringe when I end a sentence in lol, like I'm laughing at my own joke, although sometimes it helps to soften something I'm saying.
>There's also the weird thing of younger people like myself avoiding proper punctuation/capitalization for the aesthetic. Mainly because a lack of proper writing can make certain messages feel more "relaxed" and casual, if that makes sense.
I don't think it's weird at all, and I don't think it's simply aesthetic. All these things (punctuation, capitalization, emoji/emoticons, representations of non-verbal communication like "lol" and "hmm", message boundaries, message send times) are ways of conveying tone, nuance, and a personal voice in an otherwise sterile, flat medium.
These nuances have been around as long as we've had instant messaging, but the specifics have changed over time. Representations of laughter are a good example: over the years we've had (in no order) "lol", "Lol", "LOL", "rofl", "ROFL", "lmao", "lmfao", "LMAO", "LMFAO", "hah", "haha", "hahaha", "HAHAHAHA", "roflmao", "roflcopter", and others. Over time the nuances of these options have changed, with some no longer au courant (the rofl family is currently outmoded), just as spoken slang and language rapidly evolve. Punctuation choices and so on follow similar patterns.
I do roll my eyes a little bit at some of the wild prescriptivism that can be found in this thread, which I think completely misses the point. The footnote from the original post I find especially infuriating:
>sloppy with their written communication, which is to say "careless and unsystematic; excessively casual".
Casual speech is not sloppy! Choices of punctuation, capitalization, and so on are deliberate.
Maybe. But even over IM and text messages I use proper punctuation and capitalization. I know I'm weird, but my thought process is this is supposed to be a novel -> novels are a form of formal writing -> formal writing should use proper capitalization (and punctuation, but this uses proper punctuation).
You use punctuation marks to structure and organise your writing. The most common of these are the period (or full stop in British English), the comma, the exclamation mark, the question mark, the colon and semi-colon, the quote, the apostrophe, the hyphen and dash, and parentheses and brackets. Capital letters are also used to help us organise meaning and to structure the sense of our writing.
You can quickly see why punctuation is important if you try and read this sentence which has no punctuation at all:
perhaps you dont always need to use commas periods colons etc to make sentences clear when i am in a hurry tired cold lazy or angry i sometimes leave out punctuation marks grammar is stupid i can write without it and dont need it my uncle Harry once said he was not very clever and i never understood a word he wrote to me i think ill learn some punctuation not too much enough to write to Uncle Harry he needs some help
Now let’s see if punctuating it makes a difference!
Perhaps you don’t always need to use commas, periods, colons etc. to make sentences clear. When I am in a hurry, tired, cold, lazy, or angry I sometimes leave out punctuation marks.
“Grammar is stupid! I can write without it and don’t need it.” my uncle Harry once said. He was not very clever and I never understood a word he wrote to me. I think I’ll learn some punctuation – not too much, enough to write to Uncle Harry. He needs some help!
Use of punctuation marks makes your English clearer and better organised.
This is fantastic. I never noticed that's exactly how I interpret the total absence of appropriate punctuation. Bonus points if you ignore capitalization as well.
I saw some guide to Zoomer communication recently which talked about how ... is perceived as "aggressive", which blew my mind. Better to just stick to lowercase letters. (Autocorrect makes this a pain though - I had to go back and fix the capitalization of "is" in the last sentence.)
I spend too much time on the internet. I would strongly argue that using the same style/level of English (punctuation, capitalization, grammar) that a seven year old knows is far more communicative and understandable than using incorrect punctuation and worrying if a full stop means someone is angry.
Perhaps people should just read the content of the message and stop worrying about the set-dressing. "They capitalized, they must be a nerd", "she ended that will a full stop, she must be mad!".
This is not even close to true among my peer group -- 20- and 30-something, middle class, educated Midwesterners. Nor is it true on any of the message boards I frequent online. So this may be an interesting anthropological datum about some segment of the population (teenagers? the poor? uneducated? the author and his wife?), but it doesn't generalize.
Punctuation is important, and sufficiently literate people recognize that. Since our society is getting more literate (or at least compared to a hundred years ago, not sure if literacy has been improving lately), I imagine this phenomenon is getting less likely, not more.
It means the formality level of text. I think that person was saying that within their family chats, they perceive that using capitals and punctuation makes the messages feel unnecessarily/inappropriately formal.
It's probably a good idea to tell people this instead of just assuming everyone knows... but it's kind of engrained in the culture of the communities I'm in.
reply