Grammar Issue: Spacing After a Period

[David cgc]

Well, it's meaningless on this board, since multiple spaces are condensed to one no matter what. I think it irritated someone a while back that their monospaced doctrinaire dinosaur-typography wasn't being respected by the software, which has the audacity to conform to those newfangled 1980s-era typographical styles.

See? Two spaces between sentences here, while there was one up above. You should still see it if you quote the post, but reading it normally, it'll show up as one.

And three! Let's just be completely crazy! And let's get some em-dashes— like these— in the mix, as well! I love me some em-dashes.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Emdashes are sexy.

 

[Cmdr_Blop]

The correct procedure is to use a single space after a period. The only instance where more than one space would be used, is when you have that kind of auto-justification feature on, which aligns both margins to be clean and even. Otherwise, in standard practice, only one space follows a period.

 

[Zero Kelvin]

Back in the 80's I saw a PhD thesis where the candidate had neglected to put any spaces after a period. It was a royal pain in the ass to read. How the hell he got his doctorate, I'll probably never know, but apparently the examiners must not have required him to retype and resubmit it. Anyway, back then, the general rule in the UK was 2 spaces for typewritten manuscripts. As others have stated, word processing and proportional fonts have made the rule obsolete.

 

[Shazam!]

Two spaces is what separates us from the ape.

QFT

 

[Marc]

Beside, two-spacing is going the way of the dodo

ur a dodo

A dashing, charming, sexy dodo.

That explains it then.

That would explain it if it were true.

Placing two spaces between sentences is also known as "English Spacing". Not "American Spacing", but "English Spacing".

As far as I know, you guys still speak English, not "American" . More seriously, I don't know where the UK stands on this. Maybe the two-space is an English-speaking thing and includes Britain, Canada, Australia, etc; or maybe it's just the US. I'll wait for Brits to chime in.

Well I was taught to use two spaces when tying (well iirc it was a recomendation when I was typing essays in high school in the late 80s). But again that was in the era of monospace fonts (started out using Wordstar and moved to MS Word) but have kept the habit. Don't recall ever been taught anything specific about spacing after a full stop/period when doing long hand.

On a iPhone/iPad (would assume iPod touch as well but never used one) that it uses a double space as a shortcut to insert a full stop but hadn't paid attention to what spacing it uses for the start of the next sentence.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

Double spacing after a period stems from the era of typewriters and monospaced typefaces, in which every character occupies the same amount of space as every other. A double space was necessary at that time in order to clearly differentiate sentences. After the advent of proportional spacing in typefaces, however, the double space went the way of the dodo, as word processors automatically implement the proper spacing after periods.

This. I'm old enough to have used manual typewriters, but I haven't used two spaces after a sentence in at least a decade.

Double-spacing is a bit redundant and repetitive, and computers tend to ignore the extra spaces.

You sure it's both redundant and repetitive?

 

[ITL]

Maybe the two-space is an English-speaking thing and includes Britain, Canada, Australia, etc; or maybe it's just the US. I'll wait for Brits to chime in.

My mum worked as a secretary in the 60's, and she was taught to use two spaces. And also to hit those keys on those big old typewriters like a Mjolnir-wielding thunder god. We had to wean her off the keyboard smiting when she started using our computers...

 

[Mary Ann]

^ The first high school I attended had those monstrously big manual typewriters that required every ounce of strength to use, and when I moved to a high school with electric typewriters my teacher yelled at me for pounding the crap out of it. It took a few lessons to get out of that habit.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Double-spacing is a bit redundant and repetitive, and computers tend to ignore the extra spaces.

Well, the BBS re-formats down to one space when I use two, so you've got a point (and not the one under your hat ).

I use two spaces after .'s, !'s, ?'s and :'s

 

[Canadave]

And three! Let's just be completely crazy! And let's get some em-dashes— like these— in the mix, as well! I love me some em-dashes.

Nice try, but there shouldn't be a space in between the em-dash and the words—like this.

And funnily enough, I just posted this article about why two-spacing is out-of-date to my Facebook last night.

 

[RoJoHen]

And three! Let's just be completely crazy! And let's get some em-dashes— like these— in the mix, as well! I love me some em-dashes.

Nice try, but there shouldn't be a space in between the em-dash and the words—like this.

I like to put a space on BOTH sides of them!

 

[Surfin' Santa]

The correct procedure is to use a single space after a period. The only instance where more than one space would be used, is when you have that kind of auto-justification feature on, which aligns both margins to be clean and even. Otherwise, in standard practice, only one space follows a period.

When text is justified so that both left and right margins are even, the spacing between words is automatically adjusted to make each line the same length. Therefore, it isn't necessary to double-space. As has been repeatedly pointed out, the convention of double-spacing after a period is a relic of the typewriter age. Modern word processing and page layout software is much more like traditional typesetting.

Oh, and this isn't a grammar issue, it's a punctuation issue.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Two spaces is what I use. I also wear dungarees, drink tonic and sit on the divan in the parlor. But I do think two spaces is better even with proportional fonts-- there should be more space between sentences than between words.

 

[Surfin' Santa]

. . . But I do think two spaces is better even with proportional fonts-- there should be more space between sentences than between words.

Then why do books, magazines and newspapers have the same amount of space between sentences as they have between words?

 

[Canadave]

^ Not to mention this bulletin board software.

 

[MacLeod]

Was always taught to leave a single space use of a period.

 

[Mr. B]

I learned two spaces. I didn't even know anyone was teaching single space.

As as aside, HTML is designed to ignore multiple spaces in code so it may be a moot point online. You have to use the character code for a non-breaking space if you want several.

 

[Marc]

. . . But I do think two spaces is better even with proportional fonts-- there should be more space between sentences than between words.

Then why do books, magazines and newspapers have the same amount of space between sentences as they have between words?

Cost savings - every extra page adds cost and all thoses extra spaces would see an increase in the number of pages.

 

[propita]

My mum worked as a secretary in the 60's, and she was taught to use two spaces. And also to hit those keys on those big old typewriters like a Mjolnir-wielding thunder god. We had to wean her off the keyboard smiting when she started using our computers...

^ The first high school I attended had those monstrously big manual typewriters that required every ounce of strength to use, and when I moved to a high school with electric typewriters my teacher yelled at me for pounding the crap out of it. It took a few lessons to get out of that habit.

My typing teacher in summer school (circa 1975) said he would fail me if I didn't keep my fingers on the home field when typing. I had/have small hands. It took me making a fist to get enough mass behind my little fingers to get those keys down, and even then my fingers were almost too short to get the key all the way down. I quit summer school.

I have sharp nails, though. I had to replace a laptop keyboard for not only wiping off letters (Hubby didn't touch type, so he needed the letters), but becuase I literally dented the keys from my short but sharp nails.