capitalisation without the capital

When the group who formed ictopus were deciding on the name, the subject of whether or not it should begin with a capital letter came up ... in the ensuing discussion it was decided that 'no' ... ictopus would be ictopus. Which caused some confusion when writers began to use it at the beginning of a sentence. Which rule took precedence ... the non-capitalisation of a proper noun or the beginning of the sentence.

This came to mind when I was readin John Connell's blog today. This is what he said, quoting from the report indicated:

"I think in the future, capitalization will disappear,” said Professor Sterling, who teaches at the University of California, Berkeley. In fact, he said, when his teenage son asked what the presence of the capital letter added to what the period at the end of the sentence signified, he had no answer.

From a report in the New York Times called, Informal Style of Electronic Messages Is Showing Up in Schoolwork. Richard Sterling, emeritus executive director of the National Writing Project in the USA says: “I think this is not a worrying issue at all.”

As he points out, when a teacher comes across the use of SMS shorthand, for instance, in a school assignment, it creates an opportunity to discuss the contextual use of different kinds of language.

The study itself is called Writing, Technology and Teens - from Pew Internet, and is actually an encouraging read. It suggests, for instance, that young people today are writing more than their parents did when they were children. It also indicates that most young people are very well aware of the difference between formal writing, for instance for a school assignment, and informal, or ’social’ writing. (the bold bits are mine not John's)

I found it a highly readable report.

Postscript - if you don’t have time to read the whole report, I came across a reasonable summary here.

This all seems to fit in very well with the 'draft experiences and outcomes' for the Literacy and English section of Curriculum for Excellence ... doing it the Scottish way. It is a long, long way from the literacy framework in England.