Why USING ALL CAPS will hurt your review
Oct 02 '03
The Bottom Line CITPAAL LTEETRS ARE ALL THE SMAE SPHAE, AND HRDAER FOR THE HMAUN EYE TO DSIUSINGTIH FORM ECAH OTEHR AT A GNACLE.
Ever wonder why the "fine print" of so many contracts is in ALL CAPS? Believe it or not, it's because caps make things harder to read.
The human eye depends greatly on the overall shape of words when scanning over them while we read. Below is an example of this in action, but before I get there, let me clarify it a bit.
This paragraph has been circulating the internet for the past several weeks. I did not write it. You may have received it in email already. I can't find any direct evidence that this research happened at Cambridge, either, but the phenomenon inherent in the text is clear enough. In my original draft, I did use quotes, but did not introduce the text in any other way. I apologize for this confusion.
My intention here is to use it to illustrate the folly of using all caps. I believe the quote shows something interesting about language, which I would like to share and commetn on. I'm not in any way claiming authorship.
*But* without further ado, read:
"Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe."
If you were able to read that mostly ok, then you can see the power of the first and last letter. The eye takes in entire words, depending greatly on the visual clues provided by the first and last letter.
The tall ascenders in letters like l, k, and t help give shape to words. The dropping descenders in j, g, and q do the same thing in the opposite direction. Combined with mid-level letters of different widths, like n, m, and i, each word winds up with a visual form. This form is of surprising importance to easy reading.
USING ALL CAPS ELIMINATES ASCENDERS AND DESCENDERS AND MAKES YOUR TEXT HARDER TO READ
That's why so much fine print is in all caps. To discourage you from reading it! Using all caps is an annoying way to get attention, anyway, but if that isn't enough to discourage you from using them, consider that you may very well be losing readers by using all caps. Consider the same scrambling experiment from before, except this time done with all caps:
CILAAOIATIZPTN MAEKS A PFORNUOD IPMACT ON THE WAY WE VLALISUY IEERRNTPT LETRETS ON A PGAE. REEEIRWVS WHO TRY TO GET MROE AIENOTTTN BY UINSG ALL CIATPALS MAY BE WKINORG ASAGINT TEELSEVMHS, SNCIE CITPAAL LTEETRS ARE ALL THE SMAE SPHAE, AND HRDAER FOR THE HMAUN EYE TO DSIUSINGTIH FORM ECAH OTEHR AT A GNACLE.
I don't know about you, but I have a lot more difficulty stumbling through this paragraph. My eye stops on every word, limping through the paragraph.
I hope this demonstration helps show why using all caps for more than ONE word at a time is probably not a good idea. If all your words are in emphatic caps, your emphasis is lost anyway.
Happy writing!
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Epinions.com ID:
Andyman
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Member: Andy Hilal
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Product Manager, Epinions.
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