The Pitch Episode 76: STOP YELLING AT ME

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All caps can grab someone’s attention or create potential miscommunication backlash. Learn how to resist the habit of yelling with your keyboard.

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Do you yell in all caps? If you’ve ever received an email in all caps, chances are you may have felt like the sender is yelling at you. Using all caps can grab someone’s attention quickly or let them know about an urgent matter, but how often you use it, and when you use it, should be taken under careful consideration. Before you pitch in all caps mode, determine the objective of your strategy. Using an all caps URGENT or IMPORTANT message in your email subject line can help your communication stand out from the hundreds of other emails, however just make sure the deadline is either really urgent or important, requiring an immediate response or eventually your messages will be tuned out. Using all caps on words in the body of your email message should be used with even greater caution or avoided, as this is where it can appear you are yelling at someone. Email has its advantages but its major disadvantage is that there is no voice or tone inflection to what you are writing so interpretation of your words can run the gamut. Some people are highly sensitive to all caps communication and can take offense immediately. Once they are put off by this aggressiveness it’s hard to get them to focus on the original point of your pitch. “The Pitch” challenge today: Limit all caps to words in the subject line of your email and only use for impending deadlines that need to be flagged. Break the habit of “yelling” by using all caps in the body of your emails or text messages. The stress it can add to someone’s already hectic day is not worth the potential miscommunication backlash.

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