University lecturers have been told not to use words in capital letters when setting assignments because it might frighten students into failure. Course leaders say capitalizing a word could emphasize “the difficulty or high-stakes nature of the task.”
The memo says, “Despite our best attempts to explain assessment tasks, any lack of clarity can generate anxiety and even discourage students from attempting the assessment at all. Generally, avoid using capital letters for emphasis and “the overuse of ‘do’, and, especially, ‘DON’T.'” The memo also says that staff must be “explicit about any inexplicitness” in their assignment briefs.
