Text
On creative license

squashed:

Marco has been having a spat with the rest of the Internet over whether proper capitalization is necessary in important in a blog post. Marco says that leaving out capitalization indicates laziness, carelessness, lack of education, and apathy regarding the text’s legibility. hilker argues that using all lowercase letters is a stylistic choice. SeanBest added that if Marco is right, e.e. cummings must have been the height of laziness.

I thought I would settle the matter. Capitalization is a matter of convention. It’s sort of like deoderant. You are welcome to flaunt the convention. In some cases, it’s even a good idea to flaunt the convention. However, unless you have a good reason to ignore it, it might reflect poorly on you.

The whole idea of creative license is that there are some creative goals higher than a set of conventions. Something might be left deliberately ambiguous for a richer meaning. It’s okay to break the rules for a reason. However, the rules are the way they are so people can communicate clearly and easily. If you want to break the rules, you need reason that is more important than clarity.

I fully agree I think you represented both sides well Squashed but where are the posts about punctuation I hate when people do not use correct punctuation have a nice day

Notes
posted 6 / 10 / 2008
  1. ragbag liked this
  2. cloois reblogged this from marco and added:
    i was staying clear of this battle,...think it’s particularly interesting, or important....
  3. ronenreblogs reblogged this from marco and added:
    i agree with marco 100% ;)
  4. sds reblogged this from squashed and added:
    represented both sides well Squashed but where...posts about punctuation I hate when
  5. yuco reblogged this from marco
  6. noahkai reblogged this from marco
  7. fuckinnerd reblogged this from marco and added:
    SO CAN I TYPE LIKE THIS? IT DOESN’T COMPROMISE THE FUNCTIONALITY OF THE LANGUAGE.
  8. simondodson reblogged this from marco
  9. hilker reblogged this from marco and added:
    ok, Marco, you win. kinda. i removed the text-transform element from my css out of respect for the integrity of the...
  10. socialspacestation reblogged this from marco
  11. furth reblogged this from marco
  12. squashed reblogged this from seanbest and added:
    Marco has been having a spat with the rest of the Internet over whether proper capitalization is necessary in important...
  13. jratlee reblogged this from marco and added:
    Marco.org Tumblelog: lowercase vs. Uppercase. there are two sperate but, as marco points out, related arguments going on...
  14. fairlyoddmuse reblogged this from tylerriewer and added:
    i never took a typing class in high school. slows me down to write properly…. oh and i am totally lazy.
  15. littleorphanammo reblogged this from seanbest and added:
    Woah, major grammar war going on here! Who knew? Also, I think Hilker’s initial comment about having creative license...
  16. tylerriewer reblogged this from marco and added:
    I’m in full support of Marco here. Writing in all lowercase is the equivalent of wearing your sunglasses indoors. It...
  17. seanbest reblogged this from marco and added:
    And if we are to follow...its obvious conclusion, then
  18. marco reblogged this from hilker and added:
    You can write however you want. I...care. (Also, I think your statement about having...
  19. hilker reblogged this from jaclynday and added:
    don’t capitalize because there’s no reason to. grammar, schmrammar. i was an english major
  20. jaclynday posted this
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