Two space good, one space bad.
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 ...
Oops. That would be apostrophes and not commas. Commas on the brain.
A guy who uses lots of commas and pulls it off really well is Jay Nordlinger over at National Review. He’s one of the few who can do it and sound conversational rather than clunky.
http://old.nationalreview.com/impromptus/nordlinger200604280626.asp
I never use MS Word, but I have gone out of my way to use 12 pt. Courier or monotype fonts in certain situations. There is a place for it.
Doesn’t surprise me a bit, since it’s such a stylistic thing with no firm rules beyond the basics.
Two space good, one space bad.
My high school typing teacher never lied to me. She was true blue, Mr. Wales. Two spaces after a period. No exceptions.
Except when FR changes it to 1 space.
I will continue to use two spaces just because I know it annoys a stinking liberal at the Slate!
I use Open Office.
In modern writing, it is a disservice to your reader to use monotype, unless there is a particular "artistic" reason -- like trying to look like a tele-type or an old-style typewriter.
(Not counting HTML code tag)
Two-spacing with modern word-processers does cause "rivers" of whitespace that distract your reader as well. Two-spacing can be a hard habit to break but, again, your readers will appreciate it.
Two spaces when typing, one space when text messaging (saves 1 character).
(.)(.) ?
( . )( . ) ?
( .|. ) ?
Could go on for hours looking for examples ...
It would annoy me if it was more than a page or two. It doesn't matter in informal stuff like conversational emails.
In professional correspondence it will signal your reader that you are an amateur, you don't write much, or that you are a luddite.
Remember your goal as a writer is to make reading your stuff easy on your readers. Avoiding two-spacing is a step in that direction.
That’s why I use two spaces. I didn’t know that there was an argument going on.
Apostrophe abuse. What a despicable scourge on the language - and it's contagious, too. I even see people in their 50s doing that in their postings. People you'd think would know better, having learned to read and write in a day when such a thing was an obvious mark of ignorance.
What's really interesting about apostrophe abuse, is that it actually takes a degree of effort to insert apostrophes in the wrong places. Not only that, but any spell-check program picks it right up, and alerts the writer to it.
That particular error is so annoying to me, that sometimes I'll skip someone's entire post because of it.
I use Open Office as well. Never had MS Office so i do not know if I am missing anything, but really like being able to customize the toolbars and keyboard shortcuts. I know very very little HMTL but I have found OOo to be the best WYSIWYG word pro for making basic web pages. Thank God.
It's probably better that I not click your link to read a sample of his work. It would probably just reinforce my bad habit .. LOL
There are functional reasons in functional copy to aid legibility and ease of visually tracking the text. Serif fonts are helpful with tracking, Courier included in certain instances, not all of which involve a deliberate retro typewriter effect.
Double spacing between sentences can be helpful as well. It all depends upon the nature of a given block of copy. It’s not always a purely aesthetic consideration that drives the decision to go one way or the other.
The intended audience also plays a role, with certain expectations as well as certain possible limitations as far as vision. Colors, especially reverse type on a dark background, are to be avoided for certain audiences, and a serif font with a large x-height becomes almost a necessity.
So, in all honesty, there is no one, single hard and fast rule. Appropriateness is determined by the application and the reader. I’ve been writing direct response copy, designing the pages, both online and in print, and setting the type for years. This is the way it is unless you’re just typing memos and e-mails, or you’re just doing glamor copy for display ads.
As the argument is purely aesthetic, the old Roman maxim, "De gustabus non disputandam," applies. I find text in fixed width fonts easier to read when the two-space rule is used, and learned it when I learned typing (not "keyboarding", typing) and therefore prefer it. (For nationalistic reasons, we FReepers might want to stick to the two-space rule just to annoy Frenchified types who like the one-space rule.)
I learned 2 spaces in school typing (hunt and peck) class.
Period.
Oh,comma!
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