In Defence of the Capital Letter
The capital letter gives meaning to the English language. It deserves our appreciation, not our dismissal.
Keep your capitals on, and carry on.
We’ve all had weeks where we start noticing and tuning into that one thing that bothers us. For me, that thing has been a surge of writers/commentators/CEOs/academics (academics! Okay, it was on social media, but still…) not using capital letters when communicating online, in places where grammar stipulates that it should. Coincidentally, a rather obscure yet important paper published this month (the “Ljubljana Manifesto on reading”, endorsed by scholars, publishers’, PEN International and others) has warned that digital reading is undermining higher-level “deep” reading practices. Amongst other things, deep reading enables us to understand why text, punctuation and grammar is placed in a certain way and why it exists in the first place. The capital letter – punctuation’s sister protagonist – supports deep reading by requesting us to slow down, take notice of it and ask why it is there. Digital reading, by its very nature, wants us to skim, scan and scroll. These acts alone defy the core essence of the capital letter and what it stands for. We should be worried. Or at the very least, concerned.
If deep reading is at risk, then so too is how we write and communicate with one another. Indeed, it makes us question why we write and communicate with one another. The capital letter plays a pinnacle role in communication. But it’s often taken for granted, not understood or, as illustrated above, casually and carelessly discarded or otherwise used to the max with ALL CAPITALISED spelling. Why are we using lower case and capital letters to the extreme? How about a careful and considered balance between both? At the moment, the capital letter seems deeply undervalued in the English language despite its presence enhancing what is being said in a discreet and delicate way. So why are some people rebelling against the capital letter by using all lower case lettering? And why is this becoming more popular? Why should we care?
The importance of paying attention
Just imagine if we woke up one day and the English language – spread across our newspapers, books, billboards, emails, direction signs etc - was suddenly devoid of capital letters. Like everything in life, if it swiftly disappeared one day, only then would we truly miss it and fully appreciate the value it holds. This article is not a eulogy to the capital letter, but it’s something close to it.
I hate to think that the capital letter – introduced to me in early childhood with its large, colourful, bold and patterned fonts alongside its more delicate-looking lower-case companions – is on the decline, because to me the capital letter speaks to the essence of order, understanding and acknowledgement within the English language. So many societal changes have taken place in the last few decades which has eroded the norms of human interaction without us properly realising it, such as the creeping replacement of humans with self-service machines. Only now are we taking notice and becoming aware of the implications, highlighting that it’s always worth paying attention to these subtle societal changes caused by a small and sudden shift in culture. I wonder, for example, if the Associated Press thought that its decision to no longer capitalise “internet” in its style guide in 2016 would contribute to an internet culture where lower case conversation became the norm by 2023?
The capital letter has become one of the few (and true) ways that still connects and unites all English language speakers and writers. Sure, we can use italics and emojis for emphasis, but it’s not the same, and they can’t be used in more formal writing which always requires a call for seriousness. People may disagree about politics. The state of the world. What is true and untrue. But despite this, they can all respect and abide by the rules and use of the capital letter at the beginning of a sentence, when using proper nouns, naming people, stating months, and describing jobs titles. Let’s not wait for the capital letter to become extinct before we realise that it adds meaning and gravitas to how we communicate.
Some may say that the capital letter is stuffy. I say that the capital letter helps the world go round and reduces miscommunication in situations which could have serious consequences in areas such as diplomacy or business. In many ways, the capital letter is a miraculous invention. So much so, I’m surprised that it doesn’t have its own day celebrating its existence.
Yet there have always been critics and sceptics of the capital letter in the English language. But it has usually been for intellectual, social and literary reasons, with the intention to help society become more aware of itself and others, especially people who have been historically marginalised. Writer bell hooks decapitalised her name so that she, as the writer, would come second to the ideas she proposed. There are also “experimental novels” along the lines of Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo which deliberately avoids using capital letters with the idea that it better serves the intention, plot and characters within the novel. The decision to avoid the capital letter in these instances seems meaningful and aligns with the message of what is being conveyed.
In 1925 – so almost one hundred years ago – Austrian-American artist Herbert Bayer created the Universal (or should I say universal?) typeface which features no capital letters. His reasoning was that “Since speech reveals no difference between upper and lower case, why should written text be any different?” He also claimed that the “typographic revolution” he was pioneering was “not an isolated event but went hand in hand with a new social and political consciousness” that followed World War I.
In parallel with the technological advances that we are living through today (Germany was the most scientifically advanced society at the time) Bayer’s Universal was designed to convey “clarity, mechanical precision, economy, and efficiency through its forms of perfect circles and straight horizontal and vertical lines.” Notably, this efficiency and rejection of the very human and labour intensive gothic alphabet and “renunciation of all suggestions of calligraphy” mirrors the “faster, easier and automated” ethics and reasoning behind AI-powered language models, such as ChatGPT, which reduces the role of human participation.
Bayer’s declaration that “we write everything small, because we save time” reflects the same mentality as modern day tech bros such as CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, also a fan of lower case letters, productivity and fast execution. Lower case lettering is certainly faster to read without capital letters and can prove meaningful in cases where speed is of the essence e.g a doctor processing a patient’s medical notes before giving them emergency treatment. But as humans, do we not seek a slower, more meaningful way of communicating in most areas of our lives? Or is that too much to ask for, too much to expect?
The Rebels
The modern-day rejectors of the capital letter fall into a few categories. Firstly, and as indicated above, we have the misfits. These tend to be CEOs/tech bros who seek to stimulate or innovate. For whose benefit, I’ll leave you to decide. Secondly, we have the generational dissenters. Much has been written in the last few years about Gen Z’s liking for lowercase letters and why this is. According to this oldish piece in Vice, “In a world where Trump capitalises words like a sci-fi villain, lowercase has become shorthand for authenticity.” There is also a suggestion that using capital letters signifies support for capitalism and capital concepts such as capital cities, capital ideas, social capital and financial capital. Dominance of one letter over others – such as “I” – hints of a culture which is self-centred, individualistic and all about main character energy.
We then have the marketeers who attempt to commodify lower case lettering through authenticity. This is where meaning gets murky. Unlike the creatives of the past who found it more challenging to put their work out into the world and were under less pressure to relentlessly market themselves across multiple social media platforms, today an artist can use lower case lettering as a marketing gimmick to signal something. However, this is rarely done in isolation and is usually part of a wider trend as highlighted by this piece in Quartz:
Fourthly, and probably the most concerning of all, we have the non-engagers. The non-engagers are the ones who quickly read and write on autopilot. Everything is about process and productivity. There is no substantial meaning or intention involved. It’s fast, and often furious. This group are the most concerning as they tend to be the group who are habitually found “skimming, scanning, scrolling”, creating a culture where the “medium is the message” rather than the message itself.
If we connect the dots between digital reading and the decline/hazardous use of the capital letter, it seems clear that digital reading is making us less emotionally attached to the importance of the capital letter. According to Maryanne Wolf digital reading reduces our “time to grasp complexity, to understand another’s feelings, to perceive beauty, and to create thoughts of the reader’s own.” When we reduce our ability to take notice and have patience for small details like capital letters which make a subtle, and often significant, difference to how we communicate, we reduce our ability to experience different shades of meaning.
As noted by Rick Rubin “I might read a paragraph that inspires a thought, and while my eyes continue moving across the page in the physical act of reading, my mind may still be lost in the previous idea. I’m not taking in information anymore.” In turn, this limits our outlook and even quality of life as it indicates that we are not being mindful and attentive to the present moment and the information right in front of us which, if taken in, may change how we feel or interpret something.
I would be intrigued to see how the English language evolves in years to come, and how the capital letter evolves and what meaning we give to it. The Greeks considered grammar – grammatike – a branch of philosophy concerned with the art of writing which would provide rules and structures for creating meaningful texts. If we keep casually discarding the capital letter, what else will follow? I suspect if this does continue, and we become less mindful of grammar and punctuation across the board, then we will become more hazy on the details which make our lives feel rich and worthwhile.