Hi everybody -
Most of you should have your midterms back by now. I wanted to get them graded and back to you before the papers on "Years With Ross" are due this week.
Tangent on all-caps: You'll notice that I used ALL-CAPS in my comments on your midterms, but that's not because I'm SHOUTING. It's a convention they used at some magazines I've free-lanced for, where editorial comments were typed in all-caps inside brackets to set them apart from the copy in the actual article. That way, the typesetters (this was a while ago, when they still had typesetters at small publications) would know not to let anything in all-caps get into print. Otherwise, the rule is the same as what you're probably used to, especially for on-line communication. Web publisher Kass Johns sums it up in his "Basic Electronic Mail Netiquette (Network Etiquette)" like this: "The most important rule is never use all caps for your messages. IT MAKES IT LOOK LIKE YOU ARE SHOUTING. It is highly offensive and especially hard to read." With the different colors used in the Track Changes mode in Microsoft Word, the older convention probably isn't necessary. And I think I'm probably going to get in step with the rest of the world and quit using all-caps that way. Times change.
But, still, there is a time and a place for shouting ...
One is when student papers are long overdue. So, if you have received an email message from me today, either (1) attaching your graded midterm with comments; or (2) asking you to submit parts of it to me in a different format, you're OK. But I am still missing one complete midterm (you know who you are), and if I don't get it in the next three days I AM GOING TO THROW A DAMN TANTRUM! Capice?
A weblog for Pete Ellertsen's mass communications students at Benedictine University Springfield.
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About Me
- Pete
- Springfield (Ill.), United States
- I'm a retired English, journalism and cultural studies teacher at Springfield College in Illinois (acquired by Benedictine University and subsequently closed). I coordinate jam sessions for the "Clayville Pioneer Academy of Music" at Clayville Historic Site and the Prairieland Strings dulcimer club, and I sing in the choir and the contemporary praise team at Peace Lutheran Church in Springfield. On Hogfiddle I post links and video clips for our sessions and workshops on the mountain dulcimer (a.k.a. "hog fiddle"), as well as research notes on folklore and cultural studies, hymnody and traditional Anglo-Celtic and Scandinavian music. I also posted assignments and readings in my interdisciplinary humanities classes. The Mackerel Wrapper (now on hiatus), carried assignments and readings for my mass comm. students. I started teaching b/log when I chaired SCI-Benedictine's assessment committee, and reopened it as the privatization of public schools grew increasingly troubling and closer to home.
2 comments:
Nice. I like your explanation for the use of all caps in certain situations. I agree that all caps should can be used for editorial purposes to separate text, it's good netiquette. Editorial reasons for all caps are different than personal ones for shouting.
Thanks for posting, David. I've tried making editorial comments both ways lately, and I'm not sure which I prefer. I have a horror of putting words on paper, or a computer screen, where they might inadvertently get in print (don't ask me how I know this!), but caps-and-lowers do have higher readibilty.
Speaking of shouting, I plan to give your blogs a shout-out in class today. I'm always looking for examples I can show my students of how people can use the Web for professional purposes.
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