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Topic: Spacing between sentences
| Author | Message |
| HyancinthGirl | Posted – 1/16/2008 5:25:04 PM | show profile What is the rule when it comes to spacing between sentences? I've always done one, even in college, but the majority of my staff has always done two. I usually just take out their spacing ... but maybe I'm wrong? |
| see-doo | Posted – 1/16/2008 5:34:56 PM | show profile Hit the space bar twice after periods, Always. |
| deadline | Posted – 1/16/2008 5:41:08 PM | show profile It is one space!!! |
| Mag Girl | Posted – 1/16/2008 5:41:27 PM | show profile Every publication I've worked for does one space. |
| elleemby | Posted – 1/16/2008 5:46:38 PM | show profile one space It's my understanding that the two-space-rule comes from the typewriter days where all the letters were monospaced and you needed the extra space to more clearly show the start of a new sentence. In actual typesetting and computers, that is no longer the case, so you do not need the extra space. |
| catlondon | Posted – 1/16/2008 5:52:56 PM | show profile It's one. Old-fashioned typing was two because typewriters were mono-spaced and typesetters needed to be clear where sentences ended. Computer fonts are proportionally spaced and so adjust accordingly. This was HUGE issue where I used to work and some of the older staff members simply refused to change, so when I was proofing documents I just did a find and replace--two spaces to one. Eventually, the two-space issue will fall out of use as people who've actually used a typewriter die. |
| HyancinthGirl | Posted – 1/16/2008 6:50:39 PM | show profile Thanks folks. The two-space-from-typewriter days was my argument, too. When my 20-something staff started doing the double spacing, I thought I missed a new rule. |
| TickledGreen | Posted – 1/17/2008 12:33:45 AM | show profile I am 20-something and this is news to me. I've always used two spaces and I grew up on computers. |
| writesonwater | Posted – 1/17/2008 12:40:41 AM | show profile Almost every English teacher and typing teacher will teach you two spaces and drill it in. Essays, etc., in school -- two. In publications, always one. An editor explained it this way when I was a young writer, oh so long ago: The extra space gives the reader permission to stop reading! |
| frantic | Posted – 1/17/2008 10:09:05 AM | show profile Yes, two spaces is still something that is taught in school-- I think because the teachers themselves learned this rule long ago. But it is not the rule for publications, and it creates more work for someone (editor, production person, somewhere along the line) to fix it. When I see two spaces between lines, I generally assume the writer hasn't done much professional writing. |
| katestarrr | Posted – 1/17/2008 10:13:58 AM | show profile i'm a recent grad. i was taught two spaces. look, i'm still doing it. |
| chucho | Posted – 1/17/2008 10:56:07 AM | show profile I've seen that among Gen-X age people. It's very weird. That and spelling percent "per cent". And it's particularly noticeable in people who went to good universities in the Northeast. In fact, every person I've come across that did this who was under the age of 30 were East coasters who went to Brown, Boston and Johns Hopkins. Three makes a trend... . The Yankees are being taught by staid elitists desperately and pedantically clinging to convention, mistaking tradition for intellectualism like those people who poopoo anything that isn't classical and realist. OR am I reading too much in to it? :) |
| rulebook | Posted – 1/17/2008 11:16:53 AM | show profile I came out of school using two. Shortly after I started work in my very first job, I was told to use one (rather condescendingly, if I remember). One has prevailed in the years since, across the board. I think two is academic, one is professional. Pretty sure that's the near-universal understanding. |
| writer | Posted – 1/17/2008 11:30:09 AM | show profile In a regular English class, you are told to make two spaces. And, in fact, when I write letters or coverletters, I use two spaces. But in journalism, specifically AP style, one space is the norm. |
| jcpatterson | Posted – 1/17/2008 12:51:05 PM | show profile We've got a long time then, because we are not just waiting for those who've used a typewriter to "die off" (Can we make that "retire to the tropics"?) but also those who were taught early computer "keyboarding" classes by typing instructors. I would be surprised if a signficant proportion of the Millennial generation was not taught the two-space rule at some point. It is incredibly difficult to stop using two spaces if you were taught typing in that era. I was, and it is such a habit that my muscle memory treats a period as a request to type "period space space." Just use find and replace to get rid of the double spacing or ask your staff to before they submit copy. |
| Mag Girl | Posted – 1/17/2008 1:02:30 PM | show profile Yeah, I too was taught in school to do two spaces, but after joining the "real world" I managed to make the switch to one space permanently. Funny they never taught us the one-space rule at my journalism school, which is supposed to be one of the better ones. I hope that's changed since I've been out of school. |
