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writing - Is it alright to use lowercase "i" or should you always use "I" (uppercase)?


I frequently edit questions on StackOverflow, and I always fix the "i" into "I".
See this edit revision for instance.



When i I start my tomcat, i I am getting this problem.
How could i I resolve this problem.



Am I right to do so?



Benjol points out an interesting thread illustrating that debate:




The point of text on a site like this is to communicate.
Why do you want to make it harder to communicate than it has to be?
You may like writing with no capitalization, but I think it's pretty clear that people prefer reading with capitalization.
If you don't care about making life easier for those trying to help you, why do you think anyone will bother helping you in the first place?





Readers of the modern English language have grown accustomed to certain norms. Paragraphs, for one. Punctuation. Consistent spelling. And, of course, capitalization.




Answer



It is the standard orthography of English to capitalize the first person singular pronoun, as well as in contractions like I'm or I'll. This is not a universal property of written language, though—far from it.


Apparently the capitalization of I comes from England sometime before the time of Chaucer. The typographists of the day dictated this change; they thought that i (after being truncated from something more German-like "ich") was simply too small to stand on its own and bear so much meaning. Just goes to show how much of a technology writing really is.


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