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I don't necessarily have an informed opinion on word shape vs. parallel letter recognition.  But I think I read once — in a typography book — that one reason to use all-caps sparingly is that word shapes become less distinctive and thus harder to read.  To some approximation, any all-caps word just looks like a RECTANGLE of some length.  Whereas in ‘rectangle’ the ascenders and descenders add distinction to the shape and make it faster to recognize.

wow justin. how ill informed you must be. yes it is amazing that we can read jumbled words. but i also point you to this site. maybe you will be greater informed next time you choose to post.

http://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/~mattd/Cmabrigde/

I find that reading one sentence with a series of typos very distracting. But when I read an entire paragraph or two in which typos are integral to the entire text, I have no  trouble reading through the text. I didnot hesitate or fixate on trying to "fix" the typos in my head as I do when I'm reading a single sentence in which typos exist.

   I'd like to see the experiment tested with both kinds of typo set-ups: singular sentences, may be more than one sentence in the grouping' and finally with a a longer piece of text devoted to one topic or idea.

     thank

Sandra Ireland  March 24, 2008

Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island CANADA

The email that was forwarded to me only mentions whether you CAN read the jumbled words.  To me another factor is that people expect certain words to come after others.  Since the email I got started out with "if you can read the following paragraph" whoever is trying to read it already knows it's somewhat of a challenge.  To me since none of the words are difficult or tricky then whoever says they can't read it probably just doesn't want to take the time or try.  I dont think it has anything to do with the the mind seeing the shape of a word, and I definitely think it can slow down the reader even if it is slight.  :)

The vowels need to be in proper order

If "pmcnoay" is "company" and there is no word in the English language that starts with "p" and ends with "y", then your argument or point is invalid.  Since the original email placed the first and last letter in the proper order and only "jumbled" the middle letters- at least according to the laws of logic.

Since I am as ill informed about the whole subject, I would say I won't be intentionally condescending, just point out that the first part of Cambridge and Durhams studies sound initially from the summary above off the subject of the original email and there fore, may be invalid with the information here.

Sorry, back to bio chem; but keep the peace!