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Writing Capital Letters Incorrectly, But Not Because You Don't Know Any Better


JakobS

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So I have been doing this for a long time, at least since middle school, 18 years ago or so. I tend to place capital letters on words that usually do not meet the general rules for their use ( beginning of a sentence, proper nouns etc). The most common letters I do this to are B, T, and I. I do this because I find the capitals of these letters to be more interesting and fun to write than lower case versions. That's it, not because I randomly forget, but simply because I let my pen get the best of me, and let it do its best work! Does this happen to anyone else? I don't think I'll change, I really love my I's and B's !!!

Edited by JakobS

FP Ink Orphanage-Is an ink not working with your pens, not the color you're looking for, is never to see the light of day again?!! If this is you, and the ink is in fine condition otherwise, don't dump it down the sink, or throw it into the trash, send it to me (payment can be negotiated), and I will provide it a nice safe home with love, and a decent meal of paper! Please PM me!<span style='color: #000080'>For Sale:</span> TBA

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Your hand writing is your own. If you like your b,t, and I capitalized that is your choice. Anyone receiving your letters will soon catch on to your idiosyncrasy. I would suggest you be more careful if you were writing something that demanded use of proper capitalization....a legal document, or academic paper or something of that nature. Personally my handwriting makes use of capital letters that I have found aesthetically pleasing, even if it isn't the proper capital for copperplate, or Palmer method, or an italic script. I do follow the rules for capitalization and grammar because I feel my writing is better understood if I do.

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In past times more capital letters were used. I think they were drawing attention where it was needed perhaps.

 

Maybe something like this:

The red Pen belonged to the Man standing at the Counter.

 

I might mix cursive and non-cursive "s" sometimes.

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In past times more capital letters were used. I think they were drawing attention where it was needed perhaps.

 

Maybe something like this:

The red Pen belonged to the Man standing at the Counter.

 

I might mix cursive and non-cursive "s" sometimes.

 

This reminds me of the German language, which capitalizes all nouns, not just proper ones.

Tom

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I actually quite like this! I do it myself a lot, too. I've heard it called "sprinkled capitals" and I think it's a good name for it. I assume you write them as small letters so as to comply with the rules of orthography, right? I think it makes one's handwriting interesting.

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I actually quite like this! I do it myself a lot, too. I've heard it called "sprinkled capitals" and I think it's a good name for it. I assume you write them as small letters so as to comply with the rules of orthography, right? I think it makes one's handwriting interesting.

 

 

I think "sprinkled capitals" is a great term for this. I will be honest though, I do sometimes make them larger than the letters next to them, so I may not follow the rules of orthography completely! Though it is often a mix of large or small sized capitals! 99.9% of my writing is personal, drafts of stories, poems etc. so I am not too worried about this in my professional writing which is 99.9% typed, and my use of capitals is not so rebellious. But it is something I have noticed, and just wondered about, because I didn't think I could be the only one who enjoyed the look of certain capital letters so much that I want to use them in places they may not belong!

FP Ink Orphanage-Is an ink not working with your pens, not the color you're looking for, is never to see the light of day again?!! If this is you, and the ink is in fine condition otherwise, don't dump it down the sink, or throw it into the trash, send it to me (payment can be negotiated), and I will provide it a nice safe home with love, and a decent meal of paper! Please PM me!<span style='color: #000080'>For Sale:</span> TBA

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  • 2 weeks later...

This reminds me of the German language, which capitalizes all nouns, not just proper ones.

Well English is a Germanic language. I took a few semesters of German, and you've reminded me of that. It seems a useful thing some of the time. I don't know if it was what the OP meant.

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  • 2 months later...

Misfit.....

.....thanks for the warning about this Geezer at the Counter; the one with the red Pen. He sounds Sinister to me.

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Misfit.....

.....thanks for the warning about this Geezer at the Counter; the one with the red Pen. He sounds Sinister to me.

 

:lticaptd:

Makes me think of this bit of script dialogue:

 

Inigo Montoya:You are wonderful.

Man in Black: Thank you; I've worked hard to become so.

Inigo Montoya: I admit it, you are better than I am.

Man in Black: Then why are you smiling?

Inigo Montoya: Because I know something you don't know.

Man in Black: And what is that?

Inigo Montoya: I am not left-handed.

Man in Black: You are amazing.

Inigo Montoya: I ought to be, after 20 years.

Man in Black: Oh, there's something I ought to tell you.

Inigo Montoya: Tell me.

Man in Black: I'm not left-handed either.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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In America, we have 150 different cultures, speaking dozens of languages. We come from six continents. We include cultures that could not co-exist anywhere else on earth. In this mangled mix of diversity, there is but ONE common characteristic. None of us likes being told what to do !

 

Write not to please me. RYT3 as you wish. Write with joy.

Auf freiem Grund mit freiem Volke stehn.
Zum Augenblicke dürft ich sagen:
Verweile doch, du bist so schön !

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  • 2 weeks later...

I only really do that with my test sentences, or when writing content-less fluff for the sake of writing: my quick brown foxes and sphinxes of black quartz usually end up being Quick brown Foxes Jumping over Lazy Dogs and Sphinxes of black Quartz, judging my vows.

Capital letters are fun, but if you put on a few more flourishes, they're also a pretty good way to test for skipping.

 

Apart from that: I'm German. I've written enough capital letters for the rest of my life, thankyouverymuch.

 

(Oh, right, I also have a habit of getting creative with capital letters if I'm either quoting historical(ly inspired) stuff (even if it's just Giovanni Auditore's awesome opening monologue from Assassin's Creed Lineage) or want to achieve an older look to my writing - because, as Misfit mentioned, capitalization in both historical English and German was an adventure, to put it mildly.)

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It is, of course, your choice to do as you please, and for your own private writing, there is no need to even ask. I assume you're posing the question regarding writing that you share.

 

Non-standard capitals can be distracting. The reader may pause to wonder if the capitalization indicates a proper noun (name) and then may decide that it was an error on the part of its author, rather than a conscious decision. One advantage to standard use of capitals, grammar and punctuation is that it doesn't distract the reader - or worse, confuse him - from the content. If the emphasis of your intent is to share the beauty of your capital letters, then using them in a non-standard way makes sense, but you may have to tell your reader, as you have done here, that this is your purpose.

Edited by Manalto

James

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  • 4 weeks later...

Misfit.....

.....thanks for the warning about this Geezer at the Counter; the one with the red Pen. He sounds Sinister to me.

 

Is it the red pen? Or maybe he's left-handed (Latin for left being sinister)?

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  • 2 weeks later...

This reminds me of the German language, which capitalizes all nouns, not just proper ones.

 

I find that I do this, especially if it makes my statement clear.

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Writing Spanish is easy except I make mistakes by over capitalizing and it drives Spanish people up a tree.

They don't capitalize

 

Days of the week, months of the year

Titles of books

Languages

Nationalities

Religions

First person singular subject pronouns

Or Titles of persons

 

When I'm reading along and there is a capital letter where it shouldn't be, I understand how they feel.

 

​My issue in English, besides spelling, is the overuse, of a comma. :D

Edited by Bordeaux146
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It is, of course, your choice to do as you please, and for your own private writing, there is no need to even ask. I assume you're posing the question regarding writing that you share.

 

Non-standard capitals can be distracting. The reader may pause to wonder if the capitalization indicates a proper noun (name) and then may decide that it was an error on the part of its author, rather than a conscious decision. One advantage to standard use of capitals, grammar and punctuation is that it doesn't distract the reader - or worse, confuse him - from the content. If the emphasis of your intent is to share the beauty of your capital letters, then using them in a non-standard way makes sense, but you may have to tell your reader, as you have done here, that this is your purpose.

 

+1 for this. :) Non-standard capitals can be as distracting as incorrect apostrophes

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  • 2 weeks later...

Non-standard capitals can be distracting. The reader may pause to wonder if the capitalization indicates a proper noun (name) and then may decide that it was an error on the part of its author, rather than a conscious decision.

As an editor who corrects what others have written every day, I have to agree with this, especially in a business setting. Misuse of capitals is horribly abused for everything that sounds like "a thing", especially if it has an acronym. While I can appreciate the beauty of capital letters, I definitely advise saving this nonstandard use for personal correspondence and other nonprofessional writing.

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I have this exact problem, I really need to focus when writing to keep it from happening,. I picked up a lot of other bad writing habits when I was in elementary school for no real reason. My handwriting has never been very good, and I blame part of that on a serious wrist injury when I was younger, though i'm trying to correct some unrelated habits that i have like randomly starting words with capitals at inappropriate times.

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I typically don't capitalize in the middle of a sentence randomly. For many years (and I still do this some) my handwriting was a print/cursive hybrid. Mostly printing. I would begin a sentence normally, but every letter would be capitalized, with the caveat that the beginning of the sentence or elsewhere that would call for it would be a larger capital. In other words the Capital would be capital sized, the other letters although caps would be the size of lower case letters.

Brad

"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind" - Rudyard Kipling
"None of us can have as many virtues as the fountain-pen, or half its cussedness; but we can try." - Mark Twain

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