Double Spacing After Periods

[Phrossack]

I was always taught to use two spaces after each period, one after each comma.

 

[GoodGame]

Style rules and style sheets come and go, like other trends. I'm pretty sure it was dictated to me to do a double space after periods at one time in my school career.

That's true. Apparently the type of font doesn't matter, two spaces after a period always look as forced and unnatural as some dude's wig.

Toupe! Touche!

 

[Takhisis]

I really like neo-old-fashioned fonts.

 

[cybrxkhan]

I really like neo-old-fashioned fonts.

To be honest I have a fondness for Courier New.

 

[Takhisis]

I do, as you can guess. That's why I'll use that post in this thread, henceforth.

 

[Goodfella]

So is everyone who double spaces from North America?

 

[Takhisis]

I don't know, do Mexicans type with double spaces after stops as well?

 

[Goodfella]

I guess I meant the US and Canada, but I'd be interested to hear from Mexico too.

 

[Takhisis]

It is, technically, a North American country.

 

[Souron]

If it is only an American thing, then there's probably a historic reason for it. Like a particular typewriter manufacturer who made single spaces look bad after a period.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I correspond with a University professor from France and she regularly puts spaces before and after commas and will even put a space before a period. Is this a common European practice or just her strange typing?

 

[Quintillus]

I use two spaces after a period. Originally, it was because we were taught to back around third grade. But nowadays, it's only in part force of habit that causes me to continue doing so. I also like the visual separation between sentences that you get two spaces, particularly with non-monospaced fonts.

When reading something, however, it's rare that I consciously notice the difference. I really don't know how many of the documents I have on my computer that I didn't author have one space vs. two.

I learned to type on a computer. I have typed on a manual typewriter a few times, but not enough for it to have an impact on my typing style. I don't think I've ever typed on an electric typewriter. I can see why writers might like typewriters - it would let you focus more thoroughly on the writing, without the other distractions a computer can provide. I have a friend who uses an old mid-'90s laptop without Internet connectivity for typing serious academic papers for essentially the same reason.

It has occasionally drawn negative comments from the one-space crowd. But my take on it is that if it's a co-worker, obsessing over one space vs. two is not a good use of their pay, and if it's a professor grading a paper, it's really not significant in terms of whether it's a good paper (kind of like it shouldn't be significant whether the paper agrees with their political views). I've never commented on people using one space, for basically the same reasons along with rarely noticing it in the first place.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Sounds like it's her own, exotic version of ellipsis. In my experience, people with unpopular, inflammatory or stupid options often have their own, unique version of punctuation and overuse ellipses. Don't know why they do this. Probably they think that their punctuation should be as unorthodox as their views, or maybe they think that strange punctuation makes them seem less inflammatory and more cryptic.

Well, this twit's posts are definitely inflammatory. However, she's one of the admin's pets (as in his moderating is definitely biased), so she gets away with it. Maybe some day I'll ask her if she's really William Shatner, since her way of typing puts me in mind of how people parody his "Captain Kirk" speech patterns.

If it is only an American thing, then there's probably a historic reason for it. Like a particular typewriter manufacturer who made single spaces look bad after a period.

Since I'm in Canada, it is definitely not "only an American thing."

I correspond with a University professor from France and she regularly puts spaces before and after commas and will even put a space before a period. Is this a common European practice or just her strange typing?

I've seen people do that. I've also seen them use commas instead of periods when they make ellipses (this is also annoying, but I suppose it's customary there).

 

[Leoreth]

Well sure. It depends on who is reading it I suppose. Just like the finesse that separates fine wines is entirely wasted on my pig's palette for wines, the fine distinctions between typefaces and spacing is wasted on some people as well.

"Finesse" is the last word I would use to describe the blunt separation of sentences in bhsup's example.

Not that I don't think this rule never made any sense. Even though I've never heard of it, it seems reasonable for writing with typewriters and mono-spaced fonts. But now that more sophisticated ways of typesetting are available and the norm, insisting on it is the typical conservative behavior of clinging to rules that made sense in the past but don't anymore, without examining the reasons for that.

Toupe! Touche!

Why did you edit my quote? I thought I was losing my mind for a second.

I correspond with a University professor from France and she regularly puts spaces before and after commas and will even put a space before a period. Is this a common European practice or just her strange typing?

I've noticed that in French texts too. Definitely not standard in Germany though.

 

[Farm Boy]

"Finesse" is the last word I would use to describe the blunt separation of sentences in bhsup's example.

White space can be an indication of finesse. Serifs can be an indication of finesse, even if they "blunt" the ends of letters. I will tender to you that most of the writing that happens on places like this internet forum get poor return from white space breaks between sentences. For one, we're grammatically inaccurate enough, frequently enough, that it matters less. Also, it's more of a benefit on printed page when on printed page with fairly complex sentence structures woven in. It's hardly a vestigial choice in anything other than the regard that word processors may add in a preset amount of space after a sentence break.

 

[Leoreth]

It's hardly a vestigial choice in anything other than the regard that word processors may add in a preset amount of space after a sentence break.

You say that as if it's a negligible factor. The omnipresence of digital word processor in nearly every situation is precisely what makes it a vestigial choice.

Just look at people like bhsup who insist on their use even when there are better technical solutions.

 

[Takhisis]

I correspond with a University professor from France and she regularly puts spaces before and after commas and will even put a space before a period. Is this a common European practice or just her strange typing?

Every language has its own ortographic conventions, for example, in Greek ";" is used as a question mark instead of the far more widespread "?".

Is 'joined-up' writing taught in US schools?

 

[Farm Boy]

You say that as if it's a negligible factor. The omnipresence of digital word processor in nearly every situation is precisely what makes it a vestigial choice.

Just look at people like bhsup who insist on their use even when there are better technical solutions.

It is a negligible factor. The fact that bhsup can pound spacebar twice after a sentence break in Times New Roman and have it look exactly the same as some kiddo(or myself) that hits it once means that yes, indeed, the choice in most situations matters not at all for the final product. The only time it matters at all is generally in a monospaced font, at which point either spacing tool is acceptable. The white space is not universally unhelpful, nor is it so critical that to omit it is dire. I personally like my double-tapped sentence breaks when reading text on paper. But it really is a feel thing. Anyone actively tossing out resumes or doling out poor grades or anything like that on the basis of presence or absence of double spaced sentence breaks is a person who has a firm opinion with no understanding of the rules himself. You know, a dickhead.

 

[Souron]

Since I'm in Canada, it is definitely not "only an American thing."

Canada is just America's hat, so it still counts.

More seriously, Canada has closer ties to us manufacturing than European manufacturing, so the same things that would make typewriting treads American would apply to Canada. Call it a North American thing, and people complain about including Mexico, call it an American thing and people complain about excluding Canada. What's a man to do?

Why did you edit my quote? I thought I was losing my mind for a second.

I thought the edit made the joke better.

 

[LegionSteve]

So is everyone who double spaces from North America?

I was taught to double space in the UK, so no.

I correspond with a University professor from France and she regularly puts spaces before and after commas and will even put a space before a period. Is this a common European practice or just her strange typing?

I think my Keyboard Skills teacher would have been horrified by spaces before commas and periods.