I have a vague memory that the two space rule is a carry-over from typesetting and typewriters where every character took up the same amount of space and an extra space was needed after a full stop for the eye to register the sentence. This isn’t the case anymore, I gather, and style guides vary in their advice. As always, consitency is the goal. I use a single space.
One. I stopped typing two when I traded my Smith Corona in for WordStar on a CP/M machine back around 1982 or so. Two is only needed for monospaced fonts.
I should have mentioned that I am wedded to the two-space, something drummed into me from my manual typewriter days — I can actually hear the two “clunks” in my head when I remember those days.
I believe Daniel Burka also made fun of me for this (after making fun of me for indenting the paragraphs on my blog).
I was once sharing the editing of a document with some Euro-colleagues, which inspired one of them to write:
I like the subtle hidden encoding who wrote which parts of the text using european single spaces and north-american double spaces between the sentences ;)
Two is pure habit for me. I was taught this way when I took typing in highschool about eighty million years ago, and typing habits are a pain to break.
Always two; Hangover from learning proper letter format. Also, four hard returns after closing salutation in an email or letter — like Dria said, old habits are hard to break.
Comments
You’re supposed to put two.
You’re supposed to put two. I usually do. Don’t you?
Two spaces here, although I’m
Two spaces here, although I’m slowly breaking that habit because twitter counts them both and that’s just a waste of characters :)
Always two after a period.
Always two after a period.
I have a vague memory that
I have a vague memory that the two space rule is a carry-over from typesetting and typewriters where every character took up the same amount of space and an extra space was needed after a full stop for the eye to register the sentence. This isn’t the case anymore, I gather, and style guides vary in their advice. As always, consitency is the goal. I use a single space.
Two…but D. Burka laughed at
Two…but D. Burka laughed at me once in 2002 for doing so - giving rise to a tiny recollection of my oldie olson status whenever I do.
Only one - modern fonts
Only one - modern fonts handle this for you now. Also, whitespace is ignored in HTML, so two spaces are always treated as one on the web.
One. We were just having this
One. We were just having this conversation in our house last week.
One. I stopped typing two
One. I stopped typing two when I traded my Smith Corona in for WordStar on a CP/M machine back around 1982 or so. Two is only needed for monospaced fonts.
Two, but just through force
Two, but just through force of habit. Not sure if I’m actually supposed to anymore.
My mother was a secretary all her life, and she put three spaces in.
I should have mentioned that
I should have mentioned that I am wedded to the two-space, something drummed into me from my manual typewriter days — I can actually hear the two “clunks” in my head when I remember those days.
I believe Daniel Burka also made fun of me for this (after making fun of me for indenting the paragraphs on my blog).
I was once sharing the editing of a document with some Euro-colleagues, which inspired one of them to write:
Two is pure habit for me. I
Two is pure habit for me. I was taught this way when I took typing in highschool about eighty million years ago, and typing habits are a pain to break.
I’ve always understood single
I’ve always understood single spacing to be wrong. I’ve done it anyway at times, but I’m not proud of it.
One. I was trained in high
One. I was trained in high school typing class to use two, but broke the habit once I started using desktop publishing software.
Always two; Hangover from
Always two; Hangover from learning proper letter format. Also, four hard returns after closing salutation in an email or letter — like Dria said, old habits are hard to break.
Daniel Burka gets a cherry
Daniel Burka gets a cherry belly next time he, Ruk and I are in the same room. I’ll hold him. I’m bigger.
If you’re using APA style for
If you’re using APA style for editing, it’s 2 after a period.
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