Wriging

I, along with all its contractions (I'm, I'd), should always be capitalized.

Always capitalized. Always. Not seeing it capitalized (unless obviously accidental) almost always ensures that I never return to that site. I understand if grammar is not the writer's strong suit -- (s)he may not be a native English speaker -- but not capitalizing the "I" is just plain lazy. Right up there with never capitalizing anything or capitalizing everything, all the time.

I capitalize it when I post in places like this, on my blog writings, in non-informal emails.

But, if I'm just chatting on AIM or shooting a friend a quick email, I have no problem ignoring the shift key. ;)

Capitalization of letters gives meaning and context to your writing. Sadly, I dismiss blogs that don't use capital letters correctly. It comes of as juvenile and uncaring. Why put that sort of cognitive burden on your audience? Why make them adapt to your laziness?

I agree with Devin on the terms of informal communication (IM) only. Not on email or blogs, just IM or IRC.

It's proper English to capitalize "I" when speaking about yourself. Why wouldn't you do it all the time? Like Lila, I immediately dismiss any blogs that don't make an effort to use proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

I enjoy people who believe that when posting online, all writing conventions fly out the window. Truly, I do. It provides for me a way to separate the idiots from those who have something worth saying. If you fail to capitalize or like to convert such simple words as "to" into "2"* then your laziness and recent discovery of the internet tell me to ignore you.

So, please continue failing at capitalization. Once the throngs of idiots learn to write, I will have to find a new way to filter them out.

* Outside of satire, of course. lulz.

Oh yes, don't get me started on 'txt' shorthand. 'U R' and 'You are' make all the difference in the world. I honestly couldn't be friends with someone who communicated with me like that.

Perhaps its something to do with courtesy? Spending that extra few seconds to properly present your message..

I'm with Devin. I capitalize everywhere except in IM and sometimes on Flickr comments, both places being where I also use emoticons and webspeak, such as lol.

Of course it matters online. Why wouldn't it? It's still english.

I is always capitalized. Always. There are no exceptions. Capitalize it in IM as well. People will immediately assume you're either uneducated or apathetic if you don't write correctly. Maybe that's your audience?

yes i do ;-)

I rarely capitalize anything in IMs and most of the people type with don't either. I seriously doubt any of them think I am uneducated because I my words demonstrate my education. Keep in mind that when I IM (or in IRC) it's informal, chill out, relax type of atmosphere.

Online public writing I always do but I have seen blogs where everything is lower case. It's their style.

This (like emoticons) is one of those generation (age) type things. The younger generation grew up with a more informal atmosphere. I'm pivotal - where not using proper grammar was frowned upon.

I try to write with correct grammar and spelling, no matter where I write it.

i do all the time... i rarely miss one out

Aww... I just noticed joenewbreed beat me to it ='(

I usually capitalize it in IMs, too.

Heck, I capitalize I when I pronounce it! ;-)

Well played, Ozone. ;)

When you think of it, any capitalization except for 'sentence case' and proper nouns is actually quite bizarre. But I still do it.

What interests me is figuring out whether there really are some situations in which the conventions of written English can be dispensed with. And I do think there are. For example, before instant messaging, there were telegrams -- a very similar medium, when you think about it, where every letter you type is expensive. And so telegram- speak (the absence of punctuation, the abbreviation of words, the all caps) evolved because of the constraints of the medium.

Nevertheless, I assume that anyone who uses "2" to represent the words "two," "too," and "to" in an IM knows the different meanings and spellings of those words and uses them in contexts where there's no reason not to use the language properly (a blog post, an email, a letter (remember those?), a card). When they don't do that, I conclude the speaker's a young and inexperienced user of the language. Sometimes, I read on -- especially if it's somebody who's still learning and growing, like my children. And sometimes I don't, particularly when I don't find the content that interesting.

The trouble for me is that when you read a lot of conventional texts, as I do (novels, nonfiction, magazines, newspapers, legal briefs, reports), coming across an unconventional one is an awful lot of work because you have to translate everything. It's like those blogs that have black backgrounds and white letters -- they're just too inaccessible, too much work, to spend any time on.

Yes, bloglily, that's exactly what I was sitting here thinking. It's much too difficult for me to sift through the unconventional writing to bother with if I come across it in a blog or anywhere else. I don't use IM or IRC, so I don't deal with that type of writing much. I do read some of the emails that my daughter chooses to share, and it's a chore!

If I was confronted by IM- or chat-speak (as I think of it all) on a blog or some other thing that I was trying to read, I just wouldn't stick around long enough to worry about what I thought about the subject matter or the person writing it.

Of course it matters online. Why wouldn't it? It's still english.

I is always capitalized. Always. There are no exceptions. Capitalize it in IM as well. People will immediately assume you're either uneducated or apathetic if you don't write correctly. Maybe that's your audience?

I believe that it is you making the big assumption. IM and IRC are informal mediums; you only IM and chat with people you know. My friends know for a fact that I'm neither uneducated nor apathetic and my choice to not capitalize has nothing to do with my knowledge of English grammar.

I'd like to invite you down off of your high horse to realize that different communication styles, whether you choose to employ them or not, are still valid ways to communicate. It may bother you, and that's obviously an issue of your personal style, but I would urge you not to automatically assume that lack of capitalization is an indicator of knowledge inferior to your own. Furthermore, if you're going to draw such a hard line, then I would remind you that English is a proper noun, and thus requires capitalization.

ErinR, sorry that you seem to have took offense. I was merely stating my opinion. Also, the opinion stands. I will still assume that, but it's not so strong that someone couldn't override that opinion by excelling in other ways. I've been talking to people I don't know via chat protocols for over a decade. There have been exceptions to my little rule, but few and far between.

Is it a high horse? Yes, certainly. My time is valuable. I don't have time to waste translating chat laziness and/or gibberish into English (thanks for that correction by the way, I hadn't realized I mistyped!) Of course the i vs I thing is one of the more minor aspects of the general concept, but it still applies.

It's not like I look down on people who do this, I just choose not communicate with them on via text on a regular basis.

In deciding whether we think something is a good idea, in the end all we have is our own sense of what we like and don't like, which generally has to do with how something makes us feel.

Ozone42 likes the capitalized self -- it's clear from his passionate defense of the capital I that this is something that reaches him to his core. (Well, as much as capitalization reaches anybody's core which, I have to say, is probably not as strong as your belief in a higher being or whether the Oakland A's will ever win a world series in this new millenium.)

Erin, on the other hand, believes that what defines us is far more than the way we punctuate in an informal setting.

Having just added up the many dollars I'd be awarded for sexual behavior and misbehavior, I have to say that those things -- my behavior in informal settings, I mean --,don't define who I am and I wouldn't want them to. On the other hand, I love, love, love beautiful punctuation and I really liked Ozone 42's tough defense of it.

So, I agree with you both. And that's all i have 2 say.

Alright...go capitalized "I's". I always capitalize my I's when I write. It's just right somehow, of course like a lot of people I draw the line on IM's.

Though I do know a few people that capitalize their I's on IM's. It feels weird, but I know that's actually right so I don't bother commenting.

Capitalize everywhere, all the time.

Even in IMs, I like to capitalise I; yes, it's an informal situation and not strictly required but it feels wrong to me not to capitalise. As far as blogging goes, I'm a stickler for good grammar so the only 'i' would be a typo that had somehow slipped past Word's auto-correction and Firefox's spellchecker.

Pretty much all the time. If I ever have a lowercase "i" it's because I am being silly, or just a typo. I still write quite informally because I love to have a laugh where ever possible, but I always make sure to punctuate properly to make the message clear.

"I" not "i" always! If I'm reading something, even a misspelling seems glaring but I can overlook that more easily.

@Ozone: Sorry to come off so strong myself, but I just happen to not be a fan of assumptions. Time is valuable, but I honestly don't think that it will waste more than a nanosecond of time to interpret an i as an I. Perhaps that's just me, because I'm used to it. Who knows?

In linguistics, we have a term called code-switching. Basically, people alter their speech -- change their language register -- depending on the situation that they are in. It can literally be a switch between two languages, or it can be as simple as a lexical switch. For example, if I am speaking with friends from the southern USA (where I lived for 5 years), I speak with a southern accent and use y'all. However, I can be in the middle of such a conversation when a friend from the northern USA calls, and I immediately switch to a Philadelphia dialect.

Perhaps, in some way, written forms of communication have taken on this same characteristic. For me, it is more natural to type in IM without capitalization of the i. I can't say I ever replace to or too with 2, but it doesn't offend me when others do. As I said, I don't think that assumptions are useful. People are always worth listening to, be it in spoken or written form. I won't refuse to talk to someone because they speak with a difficult foreign accent and likewise, I won't try to limit my conversation with someone who uses language shortcuts in IM.

Oh dear, what have I started? (see! capitalised I! This note is helping!)

I always thought that writing my 'I's online as 'i' wasn't something glaringly obvious. When I read blogs or discuss topics in forums I gloss over any non-capitalised 'i's I see, which in my book isn't as bad as replacing effect with affect, or replacing quiet with quite, (and of course a whole plethora of other typos, spelling errors and so on).

Imagine the shock when I saw 29 replies all supporting the use of capitalised 'I's!

I enjoy people who believe that when posting online, all writing conventions fly out the window. Truly, I do. It provides for me a way to separate the idiots from those who have something worth saying. If you fail to capitalize or like to convert such simple words as "to" into "2"* then your laziness and recent discovery of the internet tell me to ignore you.

So, please continue failing at capitalization. Once the throngs of idiots learn to write, I will have to find a new way to filter them out.

* Outside of satire, of course. lulz.

Oh wow. I'm starting to get very, very scared. Time to start training my fingers to hit shift.

PS: Just in case any of you were wondering, I am of the younger generation, or at least I consider myself to be. Definitely younger than Tyme, though, and if she considers herself to be the 'pivot' generation, then I am surely of the dark side.

PPS: I had to read this note thrice, and correct all the non-capitalised 'i's. There were four. ;P

eh, i don't capitalize on my blog (or in my online writing) at all. i like lowercase ... s'pretty.

It is not pretty.

Yes it is!

Well, it can be, in certain cases (no pun). Maybe an idea for a new thread?

So, I see this generation thing being brandied about here. I just wanted to point out that it's not about generation, it's about age[0]. When the bulk of us first got out on the internet, we all shortened our words and thought it was "l33t" to use items like "2"[1]. As most of us have gotten older, we've let go of our childish things and became men[2] or simply better writers.

What I think it boils down to is a matter of preference - both of yourself and your social circle. If your friends are lazy or could care less about correctness then you'll be just as lazy and uncaring. If your friends are grammar-nazis then you too will become a grammar nazi.

Why is it a good thing to care? I think that there are two main points. The first is practice. For every "informal" conversation you have, you've robbed yourself of a chance for improvement. What's more is that you've robbed yourself of a chance to learn how to correctly communicate in an informal setting with someone who cares about language.

The second point, and this is aimed mainly at "informal" blog posts, is that employers care. Today's workforce is a highly competitive market (Synergistic B2B Agile Programming XP++ Buzzword Compliancy Check Passed!) with employers doing as much research as they possibly can on potential employees. That means that anything on the internet is fair game including your "informal" blog posts.

You can only imagine the impression if the employer stumbles upon your page containing choice phrases like "Dat be 2 da shizoh m@n i thot it be blinging wit gat nood.". Or, put more realistically, "so i was shootin' some b-ball outside of the school when a couple of guys they were up to no good started making trouble in my neighborhood i got in 1 little fight and my mom got scared she said your moving 2 your auntie and uncle in belaire well i whistled for a cab and when it came near the license plate said fresh and there were dice in the mirror if anything i could say that this cab was rare but i thought naw man forget it yo home to belaire i pulled up to the house about 7 or 8 and i yelled to cabbie yo holmes smell ya later i looked at my kingdom i was finally there to sit on my throne as the fresh prince of belaire".

Compared with; "In linguistics, we have a term called code-switching. Basically, people alter their speech -- change their language register -- depending on the situation that they are in. It can literally be a switch between two languages, or it can be as simple as a lexical switch. For example, if I am speaking with friends from the southern USA (where I lived for 5 years), I speak with a southern accent and use y'all. However, I can be in the middle of such a conversation when a friend from the northern USA calls, and I immediately switch to a Philadelphia dialect. [ErinR]".

Which employee would you consider?

Anyway, that's my extra two cents. Like I said, I really don't care either way I just gloss over apathetic writers much as I gloss over marketing.

[0] And I may lean towards internet age more than escape from the womb age.

[1] ErinR - what's the name for such a thing? Since you seem to be in linguistics and all...

[2] Guess what I watched last night. :)

Well, it can be, in certain cases

Hahaha. Awesome.

I think it's valid in poetry, or some form of communication where visual impact is greater or equal to the importance of the linguistic.

Ozone42; Great example. In that instance it can also be used to carry a form of self-value. Nice.

Hummmm... Please don't take offense anyone.. this is just a personal opinion

well most of the time i don't use caps.. Believing that a person dont use caps means he is uneducated ... this is too much I think. Is it really hard to read "i" instead of "I"?? hum mm I cant believe in this.. I am shocked!! I am thinking myself uneducated now!!!!

I am freelance webdesigner.. i have finished more than 525 projects world wide and my most of clients are english speaking... no one never take offense or told me uneducated.. even if i type misspelled word they never told me that...

There are two webmasters, who are my regular customers and they are always type fast and i bet they type half of the sentence incorrectly in point view of this belief....

I cant take breath where i am forced to keep such things.. no offense but i have freedom to speak and write what i feel.. at least there should not be such rule of caps ..

yes I believe and never used very chat language .. hacker type language like... l33t.. but i do use "U".. "R" "K" in Instant messengers.. not in forums ...

lastly I am not in favor of caps all the time.. yes i am not supporter of l33t kinda words but its ok to use small letters...

sometimes use them sometimes dont if i cant be bothered or its just a note or if for example i know its really going to get up someones nose because their world is so small theyd rather miss the content than struggle all the way through the metamorphosis of i to I or i can use the little i as a filter on my blog to make sure its only read by people capable of a tiny bit of flexibility and not contaminated by the kind of non-consciousness that gives a shit about hitting the shift key and i feel exactly the same about commas and periods and ive never used an ! in my life until now

john baker you are a prince and a genius & i always feel a ! coming up when i read what you write and i promise to try a little more flexibility when i feel a grammar snit coming on xoxoxo

lowercase I's look uneducated, lazy or both. So does glaringly bad grammar.

absolutely!

I think poetry or creative writing is the only viable exception. Oh, and MAAAAYYYYBEEEE IM and IRC.

I always capitalize...even in IMs. It might look weird to others, when I capitalize in IMs, but it is my choice.

Alright, I think this topic has dragged on long enough. I've written a post over at my blog detailing what I've learned from this discussion, and I must thank all of you for the feedback.

9Rules Notes rocks!

Thanks again, everyone!

I always capitalize the "I." I administrate a writing community and see those who don't capitalize the "I" in their poems. It drives me crazy. lol