Posted on 03/27/2011 5:42:59 PM PDT by Yardstick
Can I let you in on a secret? Typing two spaces after a period is totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong.
And yet people who use two spaces are everywhere, their ugly error crossing every social boundary of class, education, and taste.[snip]
What galls me about two-spacers isn't just their numbers. It's their certainty that they're right. Over Thanksgiving dinner last year, I asked people what they considered to be the "correct" number of spaces between sentences. The diners included doctors, computer programmers, and other highly accomplished professionals. Everyone—everyone!—said it was proper to use two spaces. Some people admitted to slipping sometimes and using a single space—but when writing something formal, they were always careful to use two. Others explained they mostly used a single space but felt guilty for violating the two-space "rule." Still others said they used two spaces all the time, and they were thrilled to be so proper. When I pointed out that they were doing it wrong—that, in fact, the correct way to end a sentence is with a period followed by a single, proud, beautiful space—the table balked. "Who says two spaces is wrong?" they wanted to know.
Typographers, that's who. The people who study and design the typewritten word decided long ago that we should use one space, not two, between sentences. That convention was not arrived at casually.[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
1 space when using handwriting.
2 spaces when typing.
I have books about the United States Marines and the History of the United States written back in the late 1800’s - they clearly show 1 space for in-sentence punctuation and 2 spaces for end-of-sentence punctuation.
=8-)
Taught by my HS typing teacher who was a lady in her sixties. This would have been in 1991. We were probably the last generation to learn typing on actual typewriters where two spaces are correct rather than on word processors or computers where a single space is correct. The difference is that typewriters use block spacing (see post 112 for an example) where the others use proportional spacing.
The interesting thing about posting on FR is that the font in the composition window is an old school block spaced font. But then in the preview window the font has proportional spacing, and the software (actually the HTML as someone pointed out earlier) automatically removes the unnecessary second spaces if they’re there. So regardless of whether you’re a one spacer or a two spacer it comes out with one space.
But my email program (Earthlink) leaves the second spaces in there despite being a proportional font, which winds up looking kind of funny.
Yeah, that's a rare affliction, but I've seen it here and there. I can't even begin to read something typed that way. Won't even try.
Was that a trick question??
Not only do I use 1 space after a period, I don’t put a comma between city and state anymore.
Winchester VA
not
Winchester, VA
I say, if this be anarchy, let’s make the most of it.
As a former technical writer and editor, I was trained to use just one space.
I’ve been pounced upon several times for using “too many” commas, when in fact I was writing perfectly correct English. People just aren’t taught punctuation anymore. They’re barely taught spelling.
I do not think HTML will pick up the second space, nor (or?) wikis like Wikipedia.
I think I’d be skeptical of anything that is presented to me in the way this author did. I was content be an agnostic on this issue who preferred two spaces. After reading this, I’m militant. Two-spacers, because size does matter!
And do you ever use kerning? When trying to fit a lot in a pamphlet like is offered here for download (http://peacebyjesus.witnesstoday.org/Camping.html) it comes in useful, but I would not advise going much beyond 0.5.
That’s exactly where I learned to use two spaces and I always use two and nobody has ever complained.
I have a tendency to overdo it with comma usage, and often go back and edit the extras out, but I know what you mean about the generally dismal state of punctuation, grammar, and spelling in the public.
It's a real sore spot with me. I half expect to see awful English usage in places like YouTube, et al, but it's actually alarming to see it in a place like FR.
It saddens me to think that I'm part of a dying breed of Americans, who at least has a rudimentary command of the language.
And yet in a previous post of mine I had a comma rather than a period, due to changing what I wrote and not proof reading!
Published writers often complain about the fights they’re having with publishers’ editors concerning commas.
I’ve been struggling to maintain hope for our society ever since comma’s started being inserted into place’s where they make absolutely no sense. It just grate’s on my nerve’s. You see it everywhere now, even in ad’s and sign’s. Grrrrr.
Like that?
Not surprised to see so much Freeper resistance to going away from “two-spacing.” But, with modern wordprocessors/typeseeting two-spacing is wrong.
It made sense when using fixed size type such with a typewriter. On computers it doesn’t make any sense because the word processors/type-setter programs do the adjustment for you. It is one space but it is not he same width as a “normal” single space.
I wonder if die hard two-spacers still use courier font when writing with MS Word?
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