Discipline

From Eats, Blogs and Leaves, by Jennifer Garrett (yes, your very own Blogger Help section):


A blogger must be a writer and an editor if he wants to attract and keep readers. A well-written blog indicates respect both for the medium and for the reader. Proper spelling, punctuation, and grammar are not merely the tools by which anal-retentive freaks like me get their kicks; they give words meaning, clarity, and, if you're lucky, beauty. Proper punctuation can mean the difference between comments full of flame wars and comments rife with meaningful discourse.

Be kind to your reader. Capitalization and punctuation are the easiest ways to indicate exactly what you're trying to say. It's time for a little tough love, people: Anyone who types in all lowercase needs to be taken out back and beaten. You are not e.e. cummings; you are not being "artistic." You're just too lazy to hit the shift key. If you can't be bothered with the extra keystroke, I can't be bothered to read your site. Don't turn off readers before they even get to your words.


Poor control of the English language is one of my biggest turn offs (bigger than smoking or gangster rap). 1F _|00 tYpe LiKe DiS, you can forget it, sweetie. I don't care what you look like, I would rather turn celibate.

Capitalization and punctuation mark the difference between, "I helped my uncle jack off a horse," and "I helped my uncle, Jack, off a horse."

I rest my case.


* For those wannabes out there who think it is "kewl" (cool) to tYpe LiKe tHiS, there are rules to "!337$p34k" (elite speak) as well. E.g. vowels are rarely capitalized. Keep that in mind the next time you are envisioning yourself as some "ph34r3d" keyboard warrior with "m4d 5k1llz," when you are actually exposing yourself as a "n00b."