Typing in all small case in your business e-mails looks amateurish and reflects a possible lack of education and professionalism. This topic was previously debated on an earlier post in regard to typing in all small case. Some of the opinion it is O.K. and that to look “with it” we should mimic the same rather than expect proper written communications. The bottom line is you need to capitalize your sentences properly in order to be taken seriously.

Case in fact; Jerry Yang over on Yahoo!. Very smart, educated guy and one of the leaders in the Webolution. Can you believe he notified his employees and shareholders with an e-mail update that Microsoft would not pursue a hostile takeover that was in all small case?

One could argue it isn’t a big deal as a few state in the comments after this article. But take a close look at the comments by all the other business men and women who commented. All he had to do was hit the shift key and nothing else would have been drawn into question. Instead by being lazy and/or not realizing the importance of the message he was sending, he opened the door to that lack of effort possibly reflecting on the whole Microhoo drama.

The bottom line is that in business e-mails every detail counts and if you want to be taken seriously that includes using the shift key.

Check out this article in the Wall Street Journal as well as the reader comments that follow:

Jerry Yang, Meet the Shift Key

Some More Info for You:

1. More Questions on New Business E-mail Announcements
2. Small Case Preferred Over All CAPS?
3. Capitalization Is So Very Important in Business E-mails
4. For Business E-mail, Choose Words not Formatting
5. No E-mail Etiquette Training?