Trimbur
In reading Trimbur’s article I was very intrigued by the mention of the alphabet and the fact that we cannot speak in capital letters. I never have even thought of this before. Why is it that I never see the link between written and visual. Maybe because it is so intertwined to me that I do not even think about.
Which makes me think of the fact that when people send emails to me with things in all CAPS and I feel like they are YELLING at me. Even if they do not mean it that way, I still take it that way (which ties into the fact that emails/computers can be so easily misinterpreted)
Katie said,
June 6, 2008 at 12:58 am
I DO feel that there is a certain message sent when we implement style with our typed text. Instead of CAPS, I try to use **asterisks** to emphasize, but to not yell. It is funny how we feel we must add emphasis to our typed text, which seems to only say how much we feel it does not convey in terms of emotion. Written text must use punctuation to convey emotion, also. In this way, the whole of written text does not seem to embody the emotion we would like for it to, and this results in the danger that we “over emphasize.” I remember taking a creative writing class where it was said that you did not use quotes, italics, or bold to emphasize your writing – even the exclaimation mark should be used sparingly because your words should be strong enough and well-placed enough to convey a strong message.
I think that is definitely valuable, but exhausting and even more risky in terms of having people understand what you want to emphasize. Communication is just tricky, PERIOD! =)