One space After a Period

[HopsGuy]

I learned to type in a "Keyboarding" class as a senior in high school. I was taught to put 2 spaces after the period at the end of a sentence. I was wrong and no one ever bothered to correct me. My world is upside-down.

 

Yes, I had to go back and delete a few spaces in the previous paragraph.

[ajzepp]

I learned to type in a "Keyboarding" class as a senior in high school. I was taught to put 2 spaces after the period at the end of a sentence. I was wrong and no one ever bothered to correct me. My world is upside-down.

 

Yes, I had to go back and delete a few spaces in the previous paragraph.

 

Same here. I was trained in APA format and that's always been my reference with regard to grammar and typing, and I think their most recent edition had that change, too. It did used to be two spaces, though, so I was taught as you were.

[Doc]

I learned to type in a "Keyboarding" class as a senior in high school. I was taught to put 2 spaces after the period at the end of a sentence. I was wrong and no one ever bothered to correct me. My world is upside-down.

 

Yes, I had to go back and delete a few spaces in the previous paragraph.

I'm sure this is wrong on many levels:

You'd expect, for instance, that anyone savvy enough to read Slate would know the proper rules of typing, but you'd be wrong; every third e-mail I get from readers includes the two-space error. (In editing letters for "Dear Farhad," my occasional tech-advice column, I've removed enough extra spaces to fill my forthcoming volume of melancholy epic poetry, The Emptiness Within.)The public relations profession is similarly ignorant; I've received press releases and correspondence from the biggest companies in the world that are riddled with extra spaces.

Then again, just like with 2-spacing, who the F really cares?

Edited January 14, 2011 by Doc

[The Avenger]

I learned to type in a "Keyboarding" class as a senior in high school. I was taught to put 2 spaces after the period at the end of a sentence. I was wrong and no one ever bothered to correct me. My world is upside-down.

 

Yes, I had to go back and delete a few spaces in the previous paragraph.

 

You think your world is upsidedown now, just wait until you find out your astrological sign is wrong - you've been reading the wrong horoscope, man - just blows your mind.........

[GoodBye]

Same here. I was trained in APA format and that's always been my reference with regard to grammar and typing, and I think their most recent edition had that change, too. It did used to be two spaces, though, so I was taught as you were.

Same here. It just looks better with two spaces.

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

Is that according to the APA or Warriner's Grammar?

 

[Chef Jim]

That's the way I was taught. But if it's not correct why when I type emails on my blackberry when I enter two spaces it automatically adds a period and capitalizes the next word?

[UConn James]

I've always used one space. We're better-educated here in CT.

[Booster4324]

Link

 

One of the next things I realized is that, in general, the spacing after a period will be irrelevant since most fonts used today are proportional. That is, each character is not the same size. Amy Gahran of Contentious kindly indicated that very few monospaced (i.e., non-proportional) fonts are used today on the Internet, except for perhaps Courier. This is generally the case offline as well. Proportional fonts are used much more often. For your information, I did not get any good feedback about the various fonts that are used for other Internet applications and activities, such as chat rooms and email. My guess is that they are mostly monospaced, but it is just a guess.

 

Like Amy Gahran, Kathy Gill told me that the current typographic standard for a single space after the period is a reflection of the power of proportionally spaced fonts.

 

"The only reason that two spaces were used after a period during the 'typewriter' age was because original typewriters had monospaced fonts -- the extra space was needed for the eye to pick up on the beginning of a new sentence. That need is negated w/proportional space type, hence [it is] the typographic standard."

[Steve O]

Those like myself who learned to type on a typewriter learned double spacing because a typewriter uses what is called monospaced fonts, meaning all letters/spaces use the same amount of space. Therefore it made sense to use more space between sentences. Computers use proportioal spacing, so for instance an "i" uses less space then an "s". The "space" bar uses more then (I think) anything else. So while it is now widely accepted that single spacing is correct, I for one missed the memo and continue to double space between sentences.

 

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/spaces-period-end-of-sentence.aspx

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

Those like myself who learned to type on a typewriter learned double spacing because a typewriter uses what is called monospaced fonts, meaning all letters/spaces use the same amount of space. Therefore it made sense to use more space between sentences. Computers use proportioal spacing, so for instance an "i" uses less space then an "s". The "space" bar uses more then (I think) anything else. So while it is now widely accepted that single spacing is correct, I for one missed the memo and continue to double space between sentences.

 

http://grammar.quick...f-sentence.aspx

 

This. I'm not about to change the way I space a sentence because some font nerd tells me I need to.

[ExiledInIllinois]

I was taught two. Just like after the town and state... Two then zipcode.

 

Cheektowaga, New York 14227

 

 

The reason why it is two because after commas, it is one.

 

 

 

No?? Is this an age thing??

 

Those like myself who learned to type on a typewriter learned double spacing because a typewriter uses what is called monospaced fonts, meaning all letters/spaces use the same amount of space. Therefore it made sense to use more space between sentences. Computers use proportioal spacing, so for instance an "i" uses less space then an "s". The "space" bar uses more then (I think) anything else. So while it is now widely accepted that single spacing is correct, I for one missed the memo and continue to double space between sentences.

 

http://grammar.quick...f-sentence.aspx

 

 

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

Wait a sec! What gives! I put two spaces betwen those pair of emoticons!

Edited January 15, 2011 by ExiledInIllinois

[Bills99999]

I am disappointed

 

I was expecting someone to tell a menstration joke

[ajzepp]

I am disappointed

 

I was expecting someone to tell a menstration joke

 

let's not bring Frida into this

[Fezmid]

This. I'm not about to change the way I space a sentence because some font nerd tells me I need to.

 

I'm in the two space camp, although I get yelled at by the editors of Neowin.net when I do... They allow only single spacing after a period. Now I frequently write my articles in Word, then do a global search/replace to change two spaces into one.

 

There's no way I'll be able to change without a LOT of work; typing for me is all muscle memory at this point.

[The Poojer]

couple that with the massive shake up in the astrological world...my life has been nothing but a sham to this point....whats next? drinking really ISN'T good for you?????

 

I learned to type in a "Keyboarding" class as a senior in high school. I was taught to put 2 spaces after the period at the end of a sentence. I was wrong and no one ever bothered to correct me. My world is upside-down.

 

Yes, I had to go back and delete a few spaces in the previous paragraph.

[Chef Jim]

couple that with the massive shake up in the astrological world...my life has been nothing but a sham to this point....whats next? drinking really ISN'T good for you?????

 

 

 

Please no one answer Pooj's question. We don' t need another board member offing himself.

[DC Tom]

It's two. End of story. I don't give a **** what Slate or anyone else says.

 

And for the record: a comma-separated list requires a comma before the final "and" (i.e. "A, B, and C", not "A, B and C"). And for words that begin with "H", you precede them with "an" ONLY IF the "h" is not pronounced...e.g. "an honor", but "a house" or "a history".

[Booster4324]

It's two. End of story. I don't give a **** what Slate or anyone else says.

 

And for the record: a comma-separated list requires a comma before the final "and" (i.e. "A, B, and C", not "A, B and C"). And for words that begin with "H", you precede them with "an" ONLY IF the "h" is not pronounced...e.g. "an honor", but "a house" or "a history".

 

It is one IMO. That is a good point about the commas and the h bit. I had an actual technical writer rip my work apart at one point. The comma bit was her pet peeve.

[DC Tom]

It is one IMO.

 

It's two. No one gives a **** about your opinion. It's two. So it is written.

If it's only supposed to be one because of "proportional fonts", then let the !@#$ing computer proportion two spaces however the !@#$ it wants. It's still two. I'm not going to change my typing because the computer uses "proportional fonts" and thus has some inalienable right to tell the rest of us "Oh, you should only type one space." !@#$ the computer. I'm a computer programmer. Computers do what I tell them, not vice-versa. So here it is, Mr. Computer: shove your proportional font up your proportional ass, I'm using two !@#$ing spaces after a period.

 

That is a good point about the commas and the h bit. I had an actual technical writer rip my work apart at one point. The comma bit was her pet peeve.

 

The "h" thing is my pet peeve...it seems that rule was perfectly consistent throughout the history of the english language, up until about 1996 when some ****head went on TV and said "No, we should do it differently, so it'll be consistent and easier to teach. Think of the children!" Yeah, so I'm going to walk around saying things like "I'm buying an house. It's an historical landmark. But I have to hire movers, since I have an herniated disc." For the children.

 

I'm also going to start using "3" instead of pi, and rounding square roots to the nearest whole number. It'll be easier to teach.