[ARCHIVED] Research Reasons for Avoiding All Caps

[cfelton1]

I have a faculty member who puts all Assignment, Discussion, and Content Page titles in all caps. In terms of netiquette, this is discouraged. I find it personally distracting and more difficult to read (maybe trying to focus on too much at one time??), but I cannot find any adequately cited resources that provide convincing arguments regarding best practice. Can anyone help me out? 

Thanks!!

[kona]

cfelton, other than the obvious netiquette reasons, I'm not sure if I've every seen academic research on this topic. I've shared your post with the Canvas Admins and Q & A groups to see if they can help, as well as on Twitter. I'm really looking forward to seeing if there's any research out there on this! 

Kona

[siouxgeonz]

I did a little search and found this: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2016788/   

It concludes that because all caps makes the actual size of text bigger, it improves legibility for folks w/ low vision, or when text is small. 

[cfelton1]

That is very interesting. Thank you for sharing that. 

[techczech]

The key lesson of this study is the importance of the size of the text. Note that they say that any advantage of ALL CAPS disappears when the lower case is larger - which is should be anyway for readability. It could be rephrased as saying that until you reach a certain threshold in size, increasing the size of text by making it ALL CAPS is beneficial. After that it disappears.

[laurakgibbs]

This is a style question, not "best practices," and not netiquette -- and there are multiple title styles out there, without even agreement among the main style guides, esp. re: long prepositions like "between" ... this little tool has a fun 'explanations' option that tells why the title is formatted the way it is in different styles:

Title Case Converter: A Smart Title Capitalization Tool 

I really don't see any kind of problem with all caps as a way to emphasize titles, much in the same way that web styles have larger fonts / bolded fonts etc. for titles and headers. Yes, all-caps cab be harder to read if you are talking about a long chunk of text (because it minimizes shape differences among letters), but titles are not long, so the readability argument would not apply.

What would be good practice in this regard is consistency: if the faculty member is consistently sending the message of THIS IS IMPORTANT by all-caps for all titles, that sounds very do-able, and even potentially useful. Perhaps even attention-getting because it is unusual. 🙂

[cfelton1]

Hi Laura, 

Thank you for that information. The issue is on the Modules page, where students only see titles so everything is in caps. 

[laurakgibbs]

The monotonous look of the Modules page is a huge problem regardless of typeface. Our inability to add a quick description and/or an image to the Modules display is a big problem IMO. With or without all-caps, the Modules page always looks sleep-inducing to me; it's one of many reasons I do a course website instead of relying on Canvas as the space where I communicate with my students. 🙂

[ellenbcutler]

I agree about the monotony. Somewhere between 2016 and 2017 the way modules were to be put together changed and I don't like it at all. And it seems much more labor intensive which I like even less.

In fact, based on my desire to create image galleries (I teach art history), I am using a pair of padlet walls in each module rather than linking stuff directly to the module. To see the images I want them to learn that week, students hit a link and a padlet wall comes up with a neat array of images I have fully identified. For readings they hit a link for another padlet wall with "shelves" for required reading, videos and other resources.  Assignments (essays, quizzes, etc.) are linked per usual. But there is something about this 2017 format that is just getting my goat.

[kmeeusen]

I think I would be happy the faculty is using the LMS, and knows enough to make content titles stand out for the students.

Even after 30 years, netiquette/etiquette  are not rules, just guidelines. If his reasons are valid, I don't see why anyone should care - readability and navigation seem reasons enough for me.

[cfelton1]

Hi Kelley,

To me, readability is the issue. On the Modules page, everything is in caps which I find hard to read. I was just curious if there was research related to this or not. 

[tracy_stuntz]

I haven't looked up case-specific things, but I might argue that since connotation of all caps is yelling, that students may feel uncomfortable or hostile with all caps titles. Garrison/COI is the closest I could think of that may apply: Description: Social Presence | CoI  

[laurakgibbs]

And traditional title capitalization style is kind-of-yelling, ha ha. Because Title Capitalization Style is Weird When You Think About It. 🙂

[robotcars]

If we're strictly talking about typography, formatting a document, and more specifically a web document, then using all caps is perfectly acceptable for the title of a document or a web page.

The title of a web page should be at the top and stand out and provide meaning. For the Web and HTML, this is usually done once on the page using the H1 Section Heading | MDN, adjusting the weight of the font, adding a background and many other ways to bring it emphasis.

In Canvas that usually looks like this

Research Reasons for Avoiding All Caps

RESEARCH REASONS FOR AVOIDING ALL CAPS

Since Canvas places the title in the page for us, what really becomes important is the format of the entire document (the page currently in view), and all text, images, and elements that are displayed appropriately provide good meaning and importance to the content. Such as appropriate headings based on the hierarchy and relationships of content. Then there is consistency and uniformity.

Consistency

The instructor should make sure that use of all caps for the titles is consistent across their entire course, or at least document types; pages, assignments, modules, discussions, can all be cased differently as long as they are consistent within the group.

Consistency has it's own issues, depending on how the teacher or the school sets up titles throughout Canvas.

All Caps Becomes Much More - Ch1

DIFFICULT - TO DISTINGUISH - M2.1

M1:L1 WHEN | YOU TRY TO SEPARATE MEANING

Uniformity

It may be good practice for the school to set best practices and create a style guide. Whether anyone uses all caps or not then becomes a discussion of readability, accessibility and how students and screen readers might interpret differences in text and HTML. If these things aren't important then...

Uniformity has issues too. :smileycool:

IMHO

How it appears on the page and whether it's readable on all screen sizes, devices, browsers, and the mobile apps is the most important. The standards for typography, formatting documents, and the web's guidelines will outlast the preferences of any one of it's users, so we should probably focus on making our content easy for the student and easily manageable and deployable for ourselves.

more:

All caps | Butterick’s Practical Typography 

All caps | Typography for Lawyers 

All caps - Wikipedia 

http://typographyhandbook.com/ - see Visual Hierarchy and Law of Proximity

Fundamental text and font styling - Learn web development | MDN

[Bobby2]

It's shouting. Netiquette of Capitalization: How Caps Became Code for Yelling | The New Republic  

Never enjoyed reading all caps. Good luck. 

[laurakgibbs]

Caps are code for yelling in written speech... but titles are not written speech; they are labels. That's why titles often have a different font, different style, different size from other text on a webpage. And there are lots of web style themes which use uppercase for style purposes. That's because sometimes text on a webpage is really like a label; not like written speech, not a declarative statement.

Just an example: I don't feel shouted at by the capitalized text in this screenshot because the bits in all-caps are labels. Having them be in all-caps helps clarify that they are labels. 

And I'm guessing the web style people at a site like the New York Times engage in long discussions about just what fonts and styles and colors and capitalization to use... resulting in quite a hodge-podge here at the top of that page. I could never be a web designer myself: so many details to ponder!

[Bobby2]

I remember my daughter reading the fourth Harry Potter book. And said it was very loud. Lots of capitals!

[laurakgibbs]

I read those with books on tape, so of course I am oblivious about capitalization, ha ha. 

One of my students told me he liked doing the characters' inner thoughts in italics because that's how George Martin did it in his books... but since I have only listened to the books on tape, I had no idea that was a George Martin style thing! 

[SHEBENE]

Our district uses all caps for the names of employees in Canvas. I don't feel like the names are being yelled. I feel like the purpose of formatting is to convey meaning more easily and that would apply here. I can quickly distinguish between the teachers and students. Titles and headers would potentially benefit as well. It stands out and, as laurakgibbs pointed out, titles/labels aren't that same as written speech. 

[laurakgibbs]

Poking around at New York Times last night, I noticed that the authors' names are in all-caps, which I had never noticed before. But it seemed good as I looked at it / thought about it.

[DeletedUser]

Using all caps is not just a visual preference. In terms of web design and accessibility, you should use all caps sparingly. Its fine for some titles, but it can be more difficult to read. Some fonts are better with caps than others. Spacing also helps readability. In modules, I believe it is very difficult to read caps. Also, screen readers may read capitalized letters one at a time, so it is unaccommodating to those who have vision impairments. It can also be difficult for those that are dyslexic. I have 20/20 vision, and I find reading all caps difficult when used for more than a three words.

SUMMARY: YOU SHOULD USE ALL CAPS SPARINGLY BECAUSE THE LETTERS "FUSE" TOGETHER AND SCREENREADERS MAY READ ONE CAPITAL LETTER AT A TIME, SO IT CAN BE FRUSTRATING FOR ALL. SEE? 

Writing readable content (and why All Caps is so hard to read)  

Letter case and text legibility in normal and low vision - ScienceDirect 

navigation - (How) does capitalization affect readability - User Experience Stack Exchange 

Making Information Accessible – Dyslexia Friendly Style Guide « Dyslexia Association of Ireland 

Making Accessible Links: 15 Golden Rules For Developers 

Typefaces for dyslexia | BDA Technology 
Dyslexia Font and Styles 

How Letterspacing Can Make All Caps Easier to Read 

http://www.dyslexia.ie/information/computers-and-technology/making-information-accessible-dyslexia-f...

[jonesn16]

I had no idea about screen reader issues with all-caps. Thanks for the insight!

[cfelton1]

Thank you. This is exactly the kind of information I was looking for. 

[robotcars]

Maybe relevant, didn't know where else to share. You See Less Than You Think - WSJ 

[jonesn16]

This is common knowledge I've worked with as a designer, but your question prompted me to actually try and find research. This article called It’s a Myth That All Capital Letters Are Inherently Harder to Read does the best job laying out the research about this question, and includes citations of research it relies on. I would say the title is a bit misleading, though. Here's the short version of the article: there is nothing intrinsic to the use of all capitals versus mixed-case that makes them inherently more difficult to read. However, text in all-caps is more difficult because our eyes are more familiar with mixed case. If we had all grown up and gone through school learning to read in all-caps, the reverse would be true. 

This still provides you some strong arguments for telling this instructor ignore the caps lock key, even without invoking netiquette:

• We will have a harder time reading their text because we are culturally used to mixed-case text.
• Visually, all-caps takes up more screen space — the All caps wikipedia article cites Miles Tinker in the "Readability" section, indicating that it takes up 35% more space on a printing surface (and I feel safe extrapolating that to a web page). This creates more visual cognitive load because more of what the student sees is now covered in text. Let me know if you need citations for cognitive load studies in regards to text on screen, as this is much more researched than specifically capitalization usage.
• Using all-caps denies you expressive power. Capitalization is another way to emphasize a point, similar to using bold or italics. IF ALL OF YOUR TEXT IS ALREADY BEING EMPHASIZED THROUGH CAPITALIZATION, USING BOLD DOES FAR LESS THAN IT WOULD IN MIXED-CASE TEXT.

[SHEBENE]

I'm curious as to how often the screenreader issue is an issue. That would be the only bit that would make me hesitant to use all caps for titles. I like your reference on readability  @jonesn16 ‌ but the arguments for ignoring the caps lock key strays from the initial use case. It's just about someone using it for title / header emphasis. You would want it to take more space and it would serve as contrast to the mixed-case body of the text so emphasis would be increased. Interesting discussion everyone. #ALLCAPS‌

[SHEBENE]

I find it funny that my tag, typed in ALL CAPS, gets reformatted into all lowercase.

[jonesn16]

That's totally fair. I've been struggling with instructors who use all caps throughout their text, not just in titles, so that caused me to misread cfelton's original post. I suppose another question is - does typing the title of an assignment in all caps productively increase emphasis when the title is already substantially larger than the body text and a different color? I'd be interested to see more about how Instructure arrived at those design choices.

[robotcars]

Good points from  @jonesn16 ‌ and  @DeletedUser ‌, I wondered about dyslexia as well. People need to focus less on how cool the content looks or personal preference and shoot more for providing importance and context to what the reader is looking at. 

In most arguments I've found while researching this, use of all caps in titles, should be accompanied with letter spacing and kerning. Since the instructor cannot do this for titles and Canvas is not accounting for this in the design, it should probably be avoided. That and mentions of issues with screen readers, filling out space on the screen etc, it would seem best to use Title Case, to make things easier to read.

No one should use all caps throughout their content it reduces the importance and makes it harder to read. I tried not to copy and paste content from somewhere else, but now I can't resist. The example below highlights why all caps should be limited, and how hard it can be to provide emphasis or importance to something if all the surrounding text is in app caps.

All-caps text —meaning text with all the letters capitalized—is best used sparingly.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't use caps. Just use them judiciously. Caps are suitable for headings shorter than one line (e.g., “Table of Authorities”), headers, footers, captions, or other labels. Caps work at small point sizes. Caps work well on letterhead and business cards. Always add letterspacing to caps to make them easier to read, and make sure kerning is turned on.

DON'T CAPITALIZE WHOLE PARAGRAPHS. THIS HABIT IS ENDEMIC TO LAWYERS, BUT IT'S ESPECIALLY COMMON IN CONTRACTS. MANY LAWYERS SEEM TO THINK THAT CAPITALIZATION COMMUNICATES AUTHORITY AND IMPORTANCE. “HEY, LOOK HERE, I'M A LAWYER! I DEMAND THAT YOU PAY ATTENTION TO THIS!” BUT A PARAGRAPH SET IN ALL CAPS IS VERY HARD TO READ. IT'S EVEN WORSE IN BOLD. AS THE PARAGRAPH WEARS ON, READERS FATIGUE. INTEREST WANES. HOW ABOUT YOU? DO YOU ENJOY READING THIS? I DOUBT IT. BUT I REGULARLY SEE CAPITALIZED PARAGRAPHS IN LEGAL DOCUMENTS THAT ARE MUCH LONGER THAN THIS. DO YOUR READERS A FAVOR. STOP CAPITALIZING WHOLE PARAGRAPHS.

All-caps paragraphs are an example of self-defeating typography. If you need readers to pay attention to an important part of your document, the last thing you want is for them to skim over it. But that's what inevitably happens with all-caps paragraphs because they're so hard to read.

All caps | Typography for Lawyers 

[SHEBENE]

There you go. I think you hit the nail on the head carroll-ccsd‌. Lawyers don't want you to read their contracts. Total sense.

[laurakgibbs]

And we should all REJOICE that we are readers of English. Other alphabets, like Russian for example, have much less differentiation among the letters even in lower-case, and that has consequences for all readers, and especially dyslexic readers. In English we have a variety of tall letters versus short letters versus letters that drop down below the writing line, skinny letters versus wide letters, etc. WE LOSE A LOT OF THAT DIFFERENTIATION IN UPPER-CASE.

For what it's worth, many ancient examples of writing are in sciptuo continua, which means nospacesbetweenthewords.

Yep. Talk about hard to read! Scriptio continua - Wikipedia 

(Vergil's Georgics)

[scottdennis]

Hey laurakgibbs‌,

Have you read Will in the World?  I found the part about the clerks who recorded court record's in Will's time very interesting.  Not only did they write scriptio continua, but they wrote in their own personal short hand and even wrote vertically and horizontally both, so as to maximize the available surface of vellum.  I can't imagine deciphering that!

[laurakgibbs]

Stephen Greenblatt is GENIUS! He was still at Berkeley when I was a student (now I think he is at Harvard?) ... and yes, the whole technology of writing is really fascinating: and it IS technology. We take a lot of that for granted now because it has been so normalized, but of course now the digital world is making us think about lots of aspects of writing-as-technology all over again.

Do you know about Walter Ong? He is someone who has studied the technology of writing, and esp. the shift to the printed word, in some really fascinating books. Here is my favorite:

Orality and Literacy

[scottdennis]

I am not familiar with Walter Ong, Laura.  The book you mentioned looks fascinating.  My local library system doesn't have anything by him.  Would you recommend the purchase? I did find a couple of other books by Stephen Greenblatt available for checkout (yay!).

[laurakgibbs]

Absolutely! Orality and Literacy is a presentation of Ong's views, along with great summaries of work by many other researchers in psychology and anthropology.

Some of his other books are a mix of theology and technology, but this one is more strictly focused on technology. His theological books are really fascinating also!

Something your library might have that is more recent which is really thought-provoking, not about writing per se but about writing NETWORKS is this one by Tom Standage:

Writing on the Wall: Social Media - The First 2,000 Years

The way he transitions from the circulation of writing to the birth of radio and television is so thought-provoking! And of course now the age of social media as we know it. 🙂

[victoria-maloy]

Just because this book isn't in your library system doesn't mean they won't inter-library loan it for you.  I suggest you find a librarian & ask if you have access to this type of service.

[sg1364]

My husband types exclusively in all caps because of his severe physical disability.    Please bear this in mind when you pass judgment.  🙂

[Bobby2]

 @sg1364 ‌ you make a very good point. Thank you for reminding us of different needs and abilities people may have.

[scottdennis]

One thing that this conversation reaffirms for me is never to assume what other people are experiencing or where they are coming from.  My own, probably mis, conception comes from my own experience that the only person I know who types in all caps is my father who came late to IT and the Internet in general and is a digital immigrant at best.  I realized reading through this thread that when I see all caps text one of the assumptions that I make is that the person who wrote it may be an older person or someone not cognizant of netiquette - a stereotype in other words.

[SHEBENE]

i think perhaps going the route of ee cummings and writing mostly sans caps is the way. when i get old that's what i'm going to do instead of wear purple.