How many spaces after a period

[gogoblender 3,069]

I can't believe this... there's a huge debate now at work over what's considered the correct amount of spaces after a period when writing. I was taught that it's two...but now peeps are saying that it's one.

 

Anyone got any comments on this?

 

How many do you use?

 

 

 

gogo

[DaveO 88]

From what I recall of my writing assignments, it was two spaces. Informal game posts don't need the required spaces.

[Arilaftia 0]

I'm with you Gogo! I was always taught it was two as well!

One may have simply come about cause its just easier to leave one out?

[gogoblender 3,069]

Does this forum software automatically delete the extra space. After the period?

 

 

gogo

 

p.s. omg, it does...we're being forcibly dumbillated!

 

 

[DaveO 88]

On the topic of writing, is anybody guilty of bad spelling and grammar mistakes? I must be a rare breed since I know how to spell fairly well and can compose myself without too many grammar issues. And I work in a technical support position, where my coworkers seem to have the misspell/grammar defects quite often.

[Arilaftia 0]

I do find myself guilty of misspelling but mostly its due to rushing my typing while staring at the keyboard (I cant type without looking) then hitting enter too quickly! Oh I do love spell check though!

[enci 0]

I suppose it’s more of a cultural thing, I’ve only seen ppl from the US using 2 spaces. It’s definitely only one space here in Hungary.

[gogoblender 3,069]

Interesting

This forum software is american...I wonder if they're trying to save space?

And DaveO I swear by firefox spellchecker...

 

+++

 

 

gogo

[myles 2]

Its one, even when I had to use the typewriter (yes I'm not old, but old enough to have had one). Y two? one space is wide enough.

 

I did my writing in the US with one space too, I never have had problem with it... Again y two?

[gogoblender 3,069]

When I took typing in school, it was taught as two.

 

Somehow or anther the lazification crept in and it's gotten squeezed to one.

 

grrrrrrrrrrr

 

gogo

[Yarasa 0]

It is ONE for me too.

 

As many other things, everything is different in North America when you compare with the rest of the world countries.

[dicknail 0]

I had always written one. And I've taken technical writing in the US, but I've never two spaces had been something I would consider.

 

@gogo: think about texting on phones... it eats your money

[locutus 1]

When in high school/college we adhered to MLA (whatever hoity toity english jimjam) which was TWO spaces after every period BUT when working at Classifieds Plus-all ads were to only have ONE space after the period. That having been said I never really thought about it but one seems to make sense.

[gial 2]

In the pre-computer font days, when everything was monospaced, the standard was to place two spaces after stops such as periods or colons. With the advent of variable width characters and more sophisticated word processing, the standard has become one. I still insert 2 spaces when I am typing in Courier or Lucida monospace, where all characters are equal width, as it is sometimes more difficult to see the breas, but in proportional fonts, I generally use only one space. It just looks better.

[Silearth 6]

I always have(and always will) put two spaces after every period. Period!

 

On the subject of grammar and spelling.... Well I pretty much stink at spelling, though I feel that I do well in the grammar department. Of course, in creative writing, I tend to throw grammar rules out the window. Grammar checkers do not like my prose.

[gial 2]

You're in good company Sil -- try feeding the Gettysburg Address into MS Word and checking the grammar. One of the most powerful speeches ever delivered would not get made in today's techno times

[OuttaTown 0]

academic writing has always been one space here! I actually can't believe there is a debate about something so non-controversial

 

P.S. it is just more economical, efficient I guess to type once the spacebar ... I really never heard of 2 spaces...must be something from an older generation but then computers has only been existed for less then half a century. as opposed to typewriters.

[Funkilicious 1]

I was taught two spaces after typing, and it is the norm in the Legal Practices I work in.

Edited November 18, 2007 by Funkilicious

[erialc 2]

Always two here. Always

[Erling 3]

eh... it's always been 1 here never learned anything else

 

 

and gogo I understand that its very much to do where you work now

[Timotheus 416]

I'm on the one side as well. Two somehow seems a bit silly to me, I mean, one does the job fine as well. Right?

[Indy13 5]

One space here. Two spaces sounds really odd. In fact I doubt it that I ever read any book/article/whatever having two spaces instead of one.

 

Think about it, do you leave two spaces when hand-writing? (if you do then I'll say this is even weirder. )

[gogoblender 3,069]

So many points of view on this and I really like Gial's take on this especially since another friend posted a like response on another forum I posted this topic on:

 

Minstrel:

 

"It used to be 2, back in the days of typewriters, before word processors with proportional fonts. In the old days of typewriters, one needed 2 spaces after a period or colon (1 after a comma or semi-colon) to have it appear clearly as a new sentence on the page. With modern fonts, computers, and word processors, the convention/rule is no longer necessary and therefore has come to be viewed as archaic (or, in tech speak, deprecated).

 

A few years ago (or maybe more than a few by now), this explanation was included in the new guidelines manual for authors submitting publications to scientific journals of the American Psychological Association - that's where I remembered the explanation from. Until then, like you I adhered to the 2 space rule."

 

A little bit of history I guess, and as it turns out, lol...one spacing has now become the ipso facto standard at work today.

 

oh well

 

 

gogo

[cyclops 15]

never knew it was 2 spaces in some places but it's definitely only one space here in our country

[myles 2]

The space bar is adjustable on the typewriter, unless you have a beyond ancient typewriter. I still have the typewriter from my great grandfather, which is adjusted for two spaces per click. (and there's interchangeable locks for different settings if you need)

 

That's y I asked the reason for deliberately using two spaces (mean clicking twice). we have always been able to customize spaces with a typewriter. You just have to set it so that it moves two spaces instead of one.

 

But I suppose it is right to say that it was two spaces... and that was out of necessity, ink fussiness and what not. There isn't a rule in the MLA on two spaces after period, at least not in the one I learned from school.

 

Surely we don't have a reason to manually clicking twice anymore. I have temped as a typist too, and it is absolute craziness to think about having that extra click. I'm sorry that is utter non-sense to me, imagine how many trillions more click I would have done. Nooooooooooo way.