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Leeds Trinity lecturers ordered to stop using capital letters because they could scare students into failure

The word ‘don’t’ has also been banned


Lecturers at Leeds Trinity University have been banned from using capital letters when assigning work, after being told they could upset students.

In a memo sent out to the Leeds Trinity Journalism department, the lecturers were ordered to stop using capital letters and overbearing language. They were also given tips on how to address students with a friendly tone, which included banning the word "don't", so that they were not scaring students "into failure".

It is reported the use of uppercase letters would put an emphasis on the difficulty of the assignment, consequently panicking the student and putting them in a position to fail.

The memo apparently ordered the lecturers to readdress the way in which they explain assignments, saying: "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."

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A list of do's and don'ts and other banned terms were also included in the memo, which has since caused anger from critics, who have argued the university is overindulging the snowflake generation. An employee at the university similarly argued the education system is treating the university students like children.

Leeds Trinity told The Express the memo was sent as an attempt to support the students, and allow them to reach their full potential.