The use of all caps in some diaries leaves me totally cold and it has nothing to do with emphasis or the possibility that someone wishes to shout very loudly.
I have a severe form of dyslexia which fortunately was detected when I was very young and I received special schooling. However it still took me until I was ten to read properly so I developed quite a good visual memory hence mathematics was no problem.
However letters mean little to me still I read by a form of pictogram system. Every word has a shape therefore I read the word by its visual form and not its content.
If I do not know the word it takes me quite awhile to figure it out and commit it to memory or worse still I will read it as another word entirely. Writing/typing is always an adventure for me and my good friend spell check.
I am so glad we can now just delete our mistakes without having to start the whole text over again. I will be forever thankful for word processing technology and curse it from time to time for fooling me completely.
cont.
Now this has some advantages and disadvantages
1] I can read very quickly, often line by line just by the shape of the phrase. Its one of the reasons I write in short paragraphs as I can read them in one go.
This can however lead to some blinding misunderstandings on my part and I apologise if I have offended anyone with my frequent confusion.
I have often got into arguments on blogs without really understanding why people are getting annoyed with my reply. Then I go back and read again and find I have inserted the wrong pictogram.
Punctuation is a total mystery and it usually occurs when I take a breath. When I read I punctuate in my head since a comma to me is just visual clutter.
2] It helped develop my visual memory when studying I could recall verbatim many texts very useful when needing quotes to underscore an argument or keeping categories of useful formula ready to hand as it were.
I can read my own handwriting but can only read others if it is read to me first and after some time I get used to their forming of the words. It has got easier over time yet still results in some funny replies to friends whose needs I have totally misunderstood.
Typeset is a wonderful thing as it has standardised the form of the words and has simplified my life no end.
However:
To the point of this little moan, when someone writes in all caps I just cannot see the shape of the intended word, if its just a couple I will work it out if I feel they might be essential to the overall meaning of the argument. Once it gets to sentences of all caps then I just cross my eyes and move on.
No doubt I have missed some fine rants but most people have no idea just how difficult decrypting the words is for me, I know quite a few dyslexics of varying severity and know that word form is important to many.
So please be kind and if you need to emphasise/shout please use the bold and underline options.
Oh, and please do not go on about zees and esses as I was educated mainly in the UK so you get what you get.