Double Spacing After Periods

Do you double space after periods?


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That's black humor, yes?
 
Both semicolons and colons shall be followed by a capitalised word as what actually follows is a whole new sentence!
That may be true in some places but not all :viking:

With American English we only capitalize after a colon/semicolon if there's a special design reason to do so - or as Gori said, when you know when to break the rules. What follows after colons and semicolons are new thoughts but part of the same sentence so they don't earn their capitalization by right.
 
1) One might be tempted to say that you yourself slipped a bit there. ;)

2) Both semicolons and colons shall be followed by a capitalised word as what actually follows is a whole new sentence!

1) One might be tempted, but one should resist the temptation. The sentence in which you think I slipped is this one: "In this case, the that that I had to say was a sentence I'd previously written." I take it you believe that the reduplicated thats are a slip-up on my part. Not so. The sentence to which you object follows the following sentence: "But a colon has the force of the word 'namely,' 'to wit,' or 'that is to say.'" The first that in the sentence to which you object is picked up from the phrase "that is to say" in the preceding sentence. In the sentence to which you object, I treated that that as a noun, effectively (something)-that-(is-to-be-said) (the material in parentheses understood from the previous sentence). Then I followed that that with the relative pronoun that: the that of which I am speaking, that that. I did all of that, of course, precisely to allow the reduplication. You see, I'm on record arguing on behalf of the view that two of the same thing next to one another constitute a great beauty.

Is that clear?

2) Not ordinarily, no. In the case of semicolons, a capital letter should follow only in instances where a proper noun begins the second independent clause. Semicolons don't link two sentences; they combine two independent clauses into a sentence. An independent clause is a unit of grammar; a sentence is a unit of orthography (defined precisely by beginning with a capital letter and ending with a period). In English orthography, two independent clauses may be written as two sentences, each beginning with a capital letter and ending with a period, or as a single sentence where the independent clauses are separated by a semicolon, but the first word of the second independent clause is not capitalized (unless, again, it is a proper noun).

In the case of colons, only in rare instances like my own, where the thing generally described in the independent clause preceding the colon, and needing greater specification in the (usually, but not here) noun phrase after the colon, is itself a sentence.
 
Both semicolons and colons shall be followed by a capitalised word as what actually follows is a whole new sentence!
:twitch: Thankfully, the error of your ways has been explained to you. Now, do you repent? Do you renounce your evil, sinful acts?
:( I am lacking a witty retort.
You can always do half…
Since that slate article brought up the subject, THERE ARE SOME TIMES WHEN THE CAPS LOCK KEY IS MORE CONVENIENT, thank you.
I AGREE. ASK LOUDBOT!
 
1) One might be tempted, but one should resist the temptation. The sentence in which you think I slipped is this one: "In this case, the that that I had to say was a sentence I'd previously written." I take it you believe that the reduplicated thats are a slip-up on my part. Not so. The sentence to which you object follows the following sentence: "But a colon has the force of the word 'namely,' 'to wit,' or 'that is to say.'" The first that in the sentence to which you object is picked up from the phrase "that is to say" in the preceding sentence. In the sentence to which you object, I treated that that as a noun, effectively (something)-that-(is-to-be-said) (the material in parentheses understood from the previous sentence). Then I followed that that with the relative pronoun that: the that of which I am speaking, that that. I did all of that, of course, precisely to allow the reduplication. You see, I'm on record arguing on behalf of the view that two of the same thing next to one another constitute a great beauty.

Is that clear?

2) Not ordinarily, no. In the case of semicolons, a capital letter should follow only in instances where a proper noun begins the second independent clause. Semicolons don't link two sentences; they combine two independent clauses into a sentence. An independent clause is a unit of grammar; a sentence is a unit of orthography (defined precisely by beginning with a capital letter and ending with a period). In English orthography, two independent clauses may be written as two sentences, each beginning with a capital letter and ending with a period, or as a single sentence where the independent clauses are separated by a semicolon, but the first word of the second independent clause is not capitalized (unless, again, it is a proper noun).

In the case of colons, only in rare instances like my own, where the thing generally described in the independent clause preceding the colon, and needing greater specification in the (usually, but not here) noun phrase after the colon, is itself a sentence.

:twitch: Thankfully, the error of your ways has been explained to you. Now, do you repent? Do you renounce your evil, sinful acts?
I hang my head in shame... :sad:

But mark my words: The semicolon shall be typed again!
 
I hang my head in shame... :sad:

But mark my words: The semicolon shall be typed again!

No shame. You've learned. This second line strikes me as a viable instance of the only infrequently defensible practice of capitalizing after a colon. The "my words" that need greater specifying by the post-colon material for the sentence to feel complete are themselves a complete sentence, "The semicolon shall . . ." And, as a sentence, a capitalized first word is arguably legitimate. Much like "It's it's," I would say.

But you should have two spaces after your colon.
 
You should feel no shame, Cheetah.

Also, I don't have the guts to make jokes about colons. *rimshot emote*
 
Sorry to resurrect a thread that had died its natural death, but I just discovered something that I find bears, ironically, on our discussion.

My Android smartphone's autocomplete software, if you double-space after a word, puts a period and space after that word, regards a double-space as signalling the end of a sentence.

I find this ironic because this discussion tended to break along generational lines. Older people, who had been taught to write on typewriters, tended to favor the double-space. Younger people, who had done all of their composing with word processors, tended to favor a single space.

But now the next technological advance in composing has come full circle and recognizes a connection between a double-space and a period, and instantly full circle again in converting that to a period and a single space. :crazyeye:
 
It is clearly an indicator that tradition has its place, even in this modern, bustling world.
 
some US intelligence type in Iraq gets a tip that Iraqis will electrocute American troops swimming in an irrigation canal to cool off , he sends an emergency warning :

"Soon after ... I went to intel headquarters. I found the “experts” sitting in their air-conditioned room at their computers, checking their e-mail and watching DVD movies. I confronted a certain Sgt. White (not his real name), known as the “Svengali” of intelligence reports. This was a guy known to be a stickler for rules and detail. I asked him about the “flash” report I’d sent. He looked at me with a bland, complacent face.

“We didn’t act on it because it wasn’t correctly formatted. Capital letters were not properly used, and you failed to include the requisite two periods separating sentences.”
 
Moderator Action: Please only revive antique threads if you have something critical to post. Thank you.
 
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