User blog comment:RedNovaTyrant/Caps or Italics? How I Prefer To Use Them/@comment-26475800-20180823141905

The reason why that quote you used from 1984 was in all caps is because it was written somewhere. There is a huge difference between something that's written and being conveyed to the reader as it is seen, and something that is being said. Using all caps when having someone talk is, in my opinion, lazy and poor writing. There are a ton of other ways you can make it seem like the speaker is yelling and have the point come across in a way that a child wouldn't use to do the same.

One of the easiest ways is an exclamation mark. That's kind of the use of it. Granted, using that too much gets tiresome, so you have to get creative with your writing. You could even put "he shouted" after whatever your character said. Or, you could say that "John screamed so loud that his throat was beginning to get sore. Still that didn't stop him when he shouted:" All of those are better ways to get the point across than using all caps.

Whenever I see all caps in a story, when it isn't part of a pamphlet or writing on the wall, it makes me cringe. It shows that the author doens't have a good command over the language nor does said author know how to convey a message without using tools that a person in grade school would use. The only exception I would make for all caps would be comic books or graphic novels, but I don't read those, so I can't really complain about them that much.

As for italics, that's what they're supposed to be used for. Or if someone is talking, it could be used to put an extra emphasis on the words they are saying. Sometimes, as above, when italics are used it's also explained about the emphasis that was put on the word. For example: "Ya'll better stop." (not sure how to put the italics on here, used to know but forgot. Just picture that Ya'll is italicized.) Her sentence started in a sing-song voice, but her frustration got the better of her and came out in the end.

That would be an example of using italics in a way that explains what is meant to be said too. If you feel that the your message may be misunderstood at any time, for any reason, don't go to something that could be childish and use all caps. Give more words to explain it better. Your job isn't to take the easiest way out, by using something that most writers would pull their hair out for seeing. Look at any real book, where have you ever seen someone talking in all caps? You don't see it, because it's not proper and it's lazy. Use your words that you used to build your world and get your point across that way, not with cheap tricks.