Well, yes, it does. My title seems so urgent because it's written in all caps. So there.
Alright, I must confess, I've been a pretentious ass about capitalization recently. And probably not in the way you might expect.
First, a little background:
I used to capitalize, like, religiously. Back before we all had smart-phones and tricorders, back when to text someone you had to painstakingly tap out the words with the telephone keypad, I still capitalized religiously, and constantly used proper grammar. I would do stuff like put semicolons between two separate but related clauses; I would use words like 'whom' and phrases like 'in which case.'
Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating, but you get the point. I was being a pretentious ass. That's no way to talk to your friends! Well, I eventually got the point, and learned to be more casual with mah palls. Eventually, i wasn't even capitalizing everything i wrote in my text messages and emails!
sometimes, when i posted things on facebook, i didn't even worry about capitalization there either!
Once, my girlfriend made fun of me for writing like a 13-year-old in my emails and various other digital communiques. And I got to thinking: why had I made a proverbial 180-degree turn? Well, I rationalized, google doesn't care if you capitalize anything. Hell, their brand, "google," isn't even capitalized! Searching the internet isn't case-sensitive, I can't be bothered to capitalize all the comments I make on all the bullshit I care about! And besides, no one likes a douche right? I groan every time I hear someone complaining about the misuse of some-such word or the improper use of, like, the serial comma. (Seriously, I have a friend on facebook who wrote a status decrying people who have stopped using the serial comma correctly).
So, I thought to myself every time I intentionally emailed someone without the proper capitalization, "I'm rebelling, man. I'm rebelling against the oppression of a syntactical CONVENTION, don't you see?!" And in my rebellion, I thought, I was eliciting some sort of greater awareness of... something. My petit-pretentiousness, I guess.
In all this thinking about capitalization, I was forgetting the most important thing any author - or writer of words, really - must consider. His audience. It doesn't matter that I thought all this crazy carp about the meaning of my lack of capitalization. All that matters is how it's going to be read. And I'm probably not going to annoy anyone by using proper grammar.
So, from now on, I'm going to try to use proper capitalization whenever I can.
except when i'm feeling lazy.
I have to say, I've had similar experiences with capitalization and punctuation. Grammar to now that I think about it. For the longest time I simply didn't care, and my capitalization and punctuation were decided more by a shot gun effect than any grammatical rules.
ReplyDeleteThis changed towards the end of highschool, when I began to seriously write. Roleplaying on the internet also helped tremendously. The need to avoid being mocked, to clearly and articulately express myself to other people, spurred on a need to improve my grammar skills in writing.
That is why we use grammar, and capitalization, and punctuation. They are there for precision. We express ourselves to one another by written symbols, using varied symbols as punctuation to refine the meaning of our words. Punctuation, and capitalization are used to express tense, emphasis, tone of voice, and a number of other bits of information we use to convey meaning while speaking, but cannot be conveyed through words and letters alone. That is why I've worked so hard to improve my grammatical skills.
Interesting piece! ^^
Haha, anyone else think this post was going to be about capitalization, like in a market sense, at first?
ReplyDeleteBut anyway, I found this very interesting. It begs the question of whether or not we should evolve with our technology or stay loyal to the grammatical laws that make our universe spin round. The criticisms I've heard against our digital culture say that texts and emails make it difficult to convey mood and tone–which is true considering they don't take pitch/inflection/expression into account. Manipulating grammar and punctuation can convey a certain mood and tone when we're not there to express it ourselves.
So I guess it depends on the situation, and what mood you are trying to convey. I don't see why we have to stick to the strict rules of grammar when talking to friends over texts and email and using social media. When in conversation, we break punctuation rules all the time, using run-ons, incomplete sentences, and so on, so why change the game because these conversations are typed not spoken?
^ Yes, I thought this was going to be about capitalization in a monetary sense!
ReplyDeleteI think our language is changing today more than it ever has before. All of our Twitter-talk, Facebook chatter, email language varies. We can switch back and forth without a hitch and the great thing we can all understand what we're all saying. Personally, I have two ways of writing - writing for friends and writing for class or school or work. With friends, I don't usually worry about punctuation or capitalization. But at work or school, I know those characteristics of my language means the most. In fact, I still work to improve my grammar and vocab because I know it still works.
Again, great topic. I'm interested to see how the use of grammar, punctuation and capitalization changes over the next decade.
I am a proponent of capitalization. In the end, it might not be totally necessary, but it's the tradition of our language and helps give distinction to proper names and emphasize the beginning of sentences. Maybe we're adapting beyond it, but I'm going to stick with my traditionalist sensibilities here.
ReplyDelete