The Intergalactic Highway

Lately, I've been curious to see how other people typed. In regards to spacing after punctuation, I myself have been schooled to use 2 spaces after periods, exclamation marks, question marks, and colons. On the other hand, 1 space will be used for commas and semi-colons. I've heard that sticking to 1 space is becoming more and more common nowadays. Some people are really adamant that old school spacing is the correct way while others strongly argue that 2 spaces are a thing of the past. Just read the back and forth comments here:

http://desktoppub.about.com/u/ua/typesp ... ForYou.htm

So what do you guys do?

I also was taught to do two spaces. But when I type I only use one space since it's usually informal and I type so fast it's easier to just do one space after punctuation. But if I'm being graded on what I'm typing and one of the criteria is how many spaces I use after a punctuation mark, then I do two.

I've always used one. Never knew anyone used two before.

I was put through a pretty strict/comprehensive grammar curriculum and I never even heard of the two spaces rule before.

So it looks like our influences come from our teachers. I suppose those with typing instructors coming from an age of typewriters prefer to sticking with 2 spaces. Those who learned doc programs through the modern computer tend to teach the one space rule. I guess this means within the next decade, almost every typed document will be abiding the one space technique. The only exception that comes to mind are research papers... but time changes everything.

I never heard of the two space rule either before now.

They make us type up quite a few scientifically based research paper in APA style for nursing, and the two spaces after punctuationthe has not been an issue there either. Of course APA style requires that everything is set to doublespacing, which includes all the letters..

I don't remember ever hearing about the two-spaces rule either. So I've always just put one space between sentences.

JazZeke wrote:I was put through a pretty strict/comprehensive grammar curriculum and I never even heard of the two spaces rule before.

It's not a grammar rule....it's a convention rule associated with type-set text. The two spaces after a punctuation mark rule came with the creation of the typewriter. It was thought that one space was not enough to create a sufficient amount of space between sentences. But then IBM created a typewriter with proportional spacing capabilities and no one needed to do two spaces after a punctuation mark anymore unless it was required by whatever style of writing you were using for whatever you were typing (ie. MLA, APA, etc.). I think the widely accepted rule now is one space after punctuation if you're using a computer, two if you're using a typewriter.

Phoenix wrote:I never heard of the two space rule either before now.

They make us type up quite a few scientifically based research paper in APA style for nursing, and the two spaces after punctuation has not been an issue there either. Of course APA style requires that everything is set to double spacing, which includes all the letters..

I always used MLA (Modern Language Association) style. This style required that you use one space after punctuation or two if you wanted as long as you were consistent throughout the entire paper.

What I read about APA style was that you were required to do single space after punctuation marks on the final product, but all the drafts could be double spaced if that's how the writer were comfortable typing. Then, before you handed it in, if you had double spaced after punctuation marks, you had to go through and delete all those extra spaces!

Alak wrote:So it looks like our influences come from our teachers. I suppose those with typing instructors coming from an age of typewriters prefer to sticking with 2 spaces. Those who learned doc programs through the modern computer tend to teach the one space rule. I guess this means within the next decade, almost every typed document will be abiding the one space technique. The only exception that comes to mind are research papers... but time changes everything.

I learned to type on a computer and I learned the two spaces after a punctuation mark rule so I don't think it has anything to do with what you were taught to use (typewriter vs. computer). But I think you're right it has something to do with the teacher. My teacher probably learned to type during the 1950's when there was still a need to double space after a sentence.

It seems to be that the trend now is: If you're typing on a mechanical typewriter that does not have proportional spacing capabilities, then use two spaces after sentences. If you're on a computer or on an electronic typewriter, then you don't have to worry about readability because all the spaces will be the same, so you can use one space even after a sentence.

Thank you, Wikipedia.

You can read more about the history of sentence spacing here if you so desire: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentence_spacing

Sorry....I'm a dork....

The last APA paper I handed in was last year, so unless they changed the standards again it's still double spaced when you turn it in. But they changed thestandards several times so theI old may have saidthe single spaced. I never wrote a professional paper that wasn't APA so I don't know about the other types.

Ick, just reread what I wrote earlier and noticed how badly the droid messed up the message by adding random words despite my best efforts to prevent it from doing so.. my droid is funny like that, randomly adding stuff from the onboard dictionary.

Anyways I tried to look up the origins of this two spaces after punctuation guideline. It almost looked as if the double space is a remnant from the time they used certain typewriters, so the space between two sentences would be more clearly visible. In today's computer tech world, most seem to haave moved away from the double space since it's no longer really needed. Of course most of the information I found on this subject involved people arguing like insane about which method is correct.

I've only written MLA papers and I know those required 2 spaces. I recall writing one Chicago style paper but I don't even know if I even abided by different typing rules (only difference was the citations). I guess I sort of brought that spacing style into my other typed works such as shorts stories, essays, etc. Keep in mind, though, that my AP English teacher in high school was an 84 year old woman.

Phoenix wrote:Ick, just reread what I wrote earlier and noticed how badly the droid messed up the message by adding random words despite my best efforts to prevent it from doing so.. my droid is funny like that, randomly adding stuff from the onboard dictionary.

Anyways I tried to look up the origins of this two spaces after punctuation guideline. It almost looked as if the double space is a remnant from the time they used certain typewriters, so the space between two sentences would be more clearly visible. In today's computer tech world, most seem to haave moved away from the double space since it's no longer really needed. Of course most of the information I found on this subject involved people arguing like insane about which method is correct.

Yeah, that's actually exactly what I said earlier.

As for APA, I've never actually used it much, so it's possible that the article I read was out-dated.

Yeah, I always just use one space.

The one grammar/punctuation thing that drives me nuts is that if someone's name ends in a s or z and is used as a possessive, you only add an apostrophe, NOT an apostrophe and an s, even though it sounds like you should. (For example, it's "Optimus' gun", NOT "Optimus's gun".) Even bestselling books do this all this time, and it's wrong wrong WRONG.

I was taught in school to use 2 spaces after a full stop/period. I still do use 2 spaces, but more as a force of habit. See, look! I did it again! XD