Assignment 7: 13 Tell Tale Signs

This article was interesting to me because I grew up in the "typewriter" days. I realized after reading this article why I was taught to do things a certain way -- like underline the title of a book because you couldn't italicize on a typewriter.

Some of the 13 signs that I believe are important include the following:

1. Two spaces after punctuation. This is one of those "old school" habits that I personally acquired and it was very hard to break. In fact, I still do it to this day. However, when dealing with publications, according to the author, this habit gives publications an unprofessional appearance.

2. Using bullets instead of hyphens. This is another "old school" habit because typewriters couldn't produce a bullet. Bullets give a more polished, professional look.

3. All caps. All caps were used in the past to provide emphasis; however, with the software that is now available, all caps is not really the best way to provide emphasis. Think about it....when text is in capital letters, every word has the same shape and you start reading letter by letter. With the different typefaces that are available now, all capital letters is something that is not used much anymore (thank goodness!).