Look at my previous posts on this page for elaborate explanations. Which is exactly why we need more space after a sentence than between words: there SHOULD be a slight pause between sentences! When reading aloud, I find I will miss the slight pause that should be there, continuing to the next sentence too quickly. When reading quickly, the same thing happens, and I find I have to go back and re-read at least part of the sentence to understand what it says before going on.
It slows me down greatly and makes it much more difficult to comprehend the text well. Ironically enough, I find it most problematic online when reading html which strips out double spaces , only partially because I am often scanning quickly online. That looks okay too. But most of my students pay little to no attention to how many spaces they sue between sentences. I routinely get essays from about half my students that have a variable number of spaces between sentences, sometimes as many as four, but often three.
That attitude comes from not really having any investment in their writing beyond what grade it earns, and they know through experience that most English teachers are too busy to spend much, if any, time fussing with them over typography, nor to hold them accountable for it in the form of a grade. So they learn not to care about it. The basic purpose of all spelling, punctuation and typographic rules is to promote clarity of communication by avoiding confusion and ambiguity. So, why the overbearing, scolding tone?
Hi John. I would argue, though, that certain conventions serve a greater purpose than simple clarity. After years of teaching English and professional work as a copy editor, I can tell you most errors I marked caused zero confusion in terms of meaning. But when someone takes the time to get these things right, they convey more than clarity; they convey professionalism.
They tell me they are a person who bothers with those kinds of details. There is a kind of kinship between people who care about the details in any given field. And sometimes people who share that particular kinship want to make a little noise. No harm intended, though. The world has way bigger problems than this. Jennifer…I think the main thing is just to be consistent with whichever choice you make. By your reasoning I may as well add three spaces because it promotes clarity of communication while keeping the meaning the same.
If justified text is typographically less good due to a greater variety in spacing, then at least on a very subtle level adding two spaces after periods will have a similar effect. The use of a semicolon, an ellipsis or an em-dash can completely change the tone of the text and actually change meaning, and so can spaces, At the very least it creates a pause, which in itself has meaning.
Spacing absolutely can create confusion and ambiguity, and it can also solve it. A period might be the end of a sentence, but it might also follow initials, abbreviations, numbers, and other uses. A period followed by two spaces solves a real problem with ambiguity. This is especially useful in the modern age i. Also let me say that all this talk about typographers is nonsense. Typographers as a group have no particular opinion on the issue. That kept me laughing all the way down!
As a definitely over 40, I also did typing at school, though never learnt to do the double spacing. What I was eternally grateful for though, was the decline of shorthand classes at that exact time! Was not at all passionate about such a class, so I was relieved when it was outed.
I do double spaces to improve readability. Single pixel periods are not the most visible graphic conceived. As for typewriters, I never used them for anything but play. I am over 40 but have used computers since a very young age.
Distinguishing between a comma and a period is easier with two spaces after a period. Early 40 column displays did not have this issue as the font was so very large. Sadly, not everyone has the same literacy level I do.
All your ranting just shows that you are the one behind the times. How lovely to be able to put a young whipper-snapper in her place. Clearly, I am over It is only a number and, hopefully, affords me some sort of respectability, at least for longevity.
But I do double space after the punctuation of a sentence. The theory that placing extra spacing at the end of a sentence originated with the advent of the typewriter and its monotype spaced fonts has been around for years, but I believe it is wrong. The tradition of placing extra spacing after periods and other end-of-sentence punctuation marks is much, much older. Indeed there are examples to be found in the books of the incunabula. Bembo, published by Aldus Manutius, Although there was not a fixed practice using extra spacing after periods during the early centuries of printing, it is not difficult to find examples in every age.
By the 19th century the practice was firmly established. Pick up almost any book from that era and you will find the extra spacing. So I submit that the early typists were simply following the practice that was common in their day. Whether or not it is a practice that should be continued is a separate question. Comtempory book publishers have universally abandoned the practice, and I suspect that this abandoment will continue to spread. Frankly, issues like this irk me. The main people perpetrating this myth are the something college journalist students.
So, then they become 2-space Nazis, trying to bully their opinion on everyone else in the world. Reading some of these posts, two spaces has historically been the rule far longer than any recent one-space trend. We should not change history because of technology unless it is a really big win. In this case, I think people are just becoming lazy.
With more high-tech typing devices like mobile phones and tablets, people are typing with their thumbs, typing while driving bad idea or typing so quickly to get a quick message out that quality suffers. While single spaces separate words, I think double spaces should separate sentences, it reinforces that the thought sentence is complete. It helps it stand out and I think it reinforces clearer writing, clearer reading and clearer sentence construction.
Also, carriage returns breaks, new lines, line feeds, or whatever should separate paragraphs, for the same reasons. These are the building blocks of written communication and they should each have their own unique separator. My wife is from Thailand, and the Thai written language has no punctuation.
It also has no spaces between words, sentences or paragraphs. It just just one, constant flow of uninterrupted text. Or in Thai — itisjustoneconstantflowofuninterruptedtext — super annoying. Any direction we move closer to this even as subtle as changing double spaces to singe spaces is a move in the wrong direction! Historically about 1,5 space was used. It closes, divides and opens.
Do you require so much emphasis on the division? It creates unnecessary pauses and an increased awareness of the typography while good typography should be invisible. I would absolutely prefer not to read a whole book with double spaces, just like I would absolutely prefer not to read a book set in a Didone typeface or with too much leading or with too much letter- or word spacing and I could name more typographic principles. Do you know how they feel about it?
I suppose if they thought adding spaces is desirable, it would have been standardized a long time ago. The Thai script consists of icons which are more or less the same height and width.
In Latin writing we have a lot of variety in both the vertical and horizontal dimensions, so we do need to divide to make our text easier to interpret. Also, I suspect the Thai script denotes whole words and not letters. When one icon represents a whole word, there is lesser need for spaces. I still find the Thai script to be unusual though, as other Asian languages do seem to use spaces despite having icons which are the same height. The period, space, and use of a capital letter are not unique to the end of a sentence, and apply identically to serial capitalized abbreviations.
In the case of those abbreviations, would you say that the completion of the sentence was already reinforced, even though the period, space, and capitalization does not denote the end of the sentence? You are dismissive of the rationales behind clearer division, but you have not provided cogent counter-reasoning. You seem to realize that the not-currently-an-option 1.
Two spaces, plain and simple, makes it MUCH easier to read anything anyone has written. I agree that there are many more important things to worry about, and having written this post, I was surprised by the number of people who feel so strongly about sticking to two spaces.
Read my lengthy comments on this page to get more insight into the matter. How do you know? Do we really need to cater to the business people who are only using double spaces because they grew up with the typewriter? We simply need to do proper research before we write such articles. The fact that there are many more important things going on in the world is absolutely besides the point. We all have our own professions and we all try to make progress in our fields.
Whether a single or a double space is handled after a period is absolutely relevant to typographers. We are the ones who establish these conventions and some of us do research in the psychological impact of typographic practices. We are simply trying to make language more accessible. We are improving communication, which is at the core of everything else in the world. If typographic progress were irrelevant we would still be drawing stick figures on walls to communicate.
It does matter. Jennifer—i respect your right to use one space. I do, however, take issue with three things about your post.
The first, and by far the most important, is your support of the denigration of older people. We live in an era of age discrimination. Your post, and your follow up comments, state that the reason people incorrectly in your view use two spaces after a full stop is because they are old, ignorant, and stuck in their old ways.
This is offensive. Is this really what you want the teachers who look to you for advice to be teaching their students? As shown by many of your comments, there was no reason to link age with the use of two spaces. Second, and implied in the first, the absolutism of your article is just silly. Reference the comments above. Third, so far as i can see, the move to one space in certain quarters was based upon aesthetics. I think aesthetics are important.
But, in writing, I think aesthetics—in the sense of how words appear visually on the page, whether they look pretty or not—must take second billing to the need for clear expression. As many of the commenters and their referenced sources note, the separation of sentences—complete thoughts—by two spaces and words within sentences by one space aids in understanding, clarity and readability. But to elevate aesthetics, as practiced by magazine publishers, above clear expression again seems unworthy of a person teaching pedagogy.
Brief point of interest related to the age issue: in , when you were learning to type on an IBM Selectric, I had already been using personal computers and word processing software to write and edit for a national publication for several years. I have not used a typewriter since except occasionally to type an envelope when printers were still not very good at it. Just because i am over 55 does not mean I am backwards or do not understand the latest technology.
Thanks for taking the time to comment. I do feel genuinely sorry for having offended anyone. Being over 40 myself, I felt it was okay to poke a little fun. But I am realizing now that because technology is moving so fast, the fear of being out of touch is very real — and can have serious consequences — for anyone who might be considered of an advanced age. It has given me a lot to think about in terms of the relationship between how a message is delivered and how receptive your audience will be to hearing it.
I hope to formulate what I have learned here into a lesson I can share in a later post. Then there are those who are old. They grew up with certain technologies with their very specific set of restrictions and so these people created certain routines to work with those restrictions or perhaps work around them.
Technology advances, but not all people grow with the time. The fact that a lot of older people use double spaces is evidence of that. And that brings me to people who are stuck in their ways. Despite the fact most of us know close to nothing about typography, I see a lot of passionate reactions here from people who argue double spaces are absolutely better while the typographic community actually advises against it.
I believe she was very clear about that. Years ago I would do a lot of website coding and so I would be pretty up to date with the latest innovations regarding CSS coding for example. Now my attention shifted to print and type design.
I can still code and actually have an advantage there compared to my classmates at the art academy since most of them have yet to learn coding. One has to do a lot more research into the history of typography and practices today to write a well-informed article on the matter. However, her article does align with what the typographic community thinks, which is that double spaces after periods are not recommended. Never have.
Historically it was preferable to have about 1,5 space after the period. In typography there is always a consideration of both aesthetics and functionality. Especially for book setting, functionality is very important. You want the reader to have a comfortable experience, after all. Bad typography causes strain on the eyes and so the reader will stop reading faster, get a headache or abandon the book. We typographers work hard to avoid that. Most of them are simply ill-informed.
It may add clarity, but I would argue it adds clarity unnecessarily and it goes at the expense of the reading experience. Adding an extra space makes the division more obvious, but since two full spaces is too much you create an unnecessary pause which increases typographic awareness while good typography is invisible.
You add strain to the eyes which diminishes the reading experience. If anything it creates extra strain on the mind. I would rather think a bit more than getting a headache from reading. The fact that you do go with the time and you do have insight into the latest technology is besides the point.
Not completely, anyway. Once I realized — and truly understood — that all of these decisions are a matter of style and opinion, life became easier.
In my first publishing job, we typed translations of foreign technical journals on either a selectric or an executive typewriter, depending on the material and the symbols involved. As word processing progressed, printer resolution improved, and desktop publishing advanced, it seemed to me that using the single space after a period helped the page lay out better, and I stopped fighting the change.
Sure helps when one has to do to a hard edit to make text fit in a confined space! After all, if writers and editors do not, who will? But consistency in a journal, book, webpage, whatever is what counts, not whether the journal from one company is written and edited in the same style as a webpage from another.
I have worked at three design studios so far. One of the companies is a marketing company which makes about a million per year and yet they were using a logo one of their interns made a couple of years ago. Nothing wrong with that necessarily, but to me it was very obvious that the person who made the logo simply did not know the basic principles of type design. For starters, horizontal strokes look optically thicker than vertical strokes so you have to compensate for that.
The logo looked absolutely amateurish to me, yet this big company had been using the logo for years. You first have to have specific knowledge before you can apply it.
They first had to learn about the basic principles of type design before they saw how amateurish their logo was. The same applies to me. For most of my life typography was not particularly noticeable to me. Years ago I started researching extensively and now it has become an obsession and I constantly see things which are absolutely wrong. It has even influenced some of my friends; just the fact that I teach them something new once in a while has been enough for them to start noticing typography as well.
Many companies never learn, so they never see. Your pretense is not helping your case here. Msilvertant: discrediting typographers since Plus, one of the original reasons for doing the single space in electronic documents had to do with the additional size of a file with those extra keyboard strokes taking up additional bits.
Now that stored memory is measure in terabytes this is not an issue. Finally, I admit my eyesight is going. The new rule IS one space after a period. It came about because the first computer wordprocessors that did right justification used to space out the space between characters, the spaces between words, AND the spaces after a period to make a line look even.
Adding 2 spaces after a period added too much space between sentences. However, I still use 2 spaces after a period because good ole stupid Word does not space out between characters or after a period. It only spaces out between words. Consequently, I feel that one space after a period makes the text harder to read, so I still use 2.
The reason I was always told to use two spaces after a sentence has nothing to do with typewriter quirks and everything to do with the fact that periods are used for abbreviations in addition to ending a sentence. Two spaces helps to distinguish between the two and makes papers easier to read.
Are you using so many abbreviations that a distinction is required? Once in a while I use etc. Adding half a space after the period would be preferable, but adding a full extra space is a nasty solution as it diminishes the reading experience. I would rather have the occasional abbreviation look less eloquent than each area at the end of a sentence. Proportion less so than preference, I would think.
Actually other research says this is wrong. It looks so clunky and cluttered and just is generally ugly when you use 1 space instead of two. The argument over one space or two reminds me of the Food Police advice on whether or not to eat eggs.
They are bad for the heart! I was taught in my typing class using IBM Selectrics in — beat you to it by a year to use two spaces behind the period after a sentence.
My career path went into Information Technology where I have continued the practice to this day. When writing technical documents, nobody has ever complained that I am using two spaces after my sentences. In my opinion, white space matters nearly as much as the printed word. Having the extra space between sentences does mean pause. They would definitely be considered run-on sentences today with sentences being extended with semi-colons and commas, but back then, this was the norm.
In that era, you actually needed the extra space to really tell when the sentence was finally over. Mainly, because that is my preference in how I present what I write. I just heard about this on the radio the other day, they said that it shows your age if you put two spaces after a period.
I said to myself that is crazy because I am only 28 years old, I have always done word processing on a computer and have ALWAYS put two spaces after the end of the sentence.
I had never heard of only putting one space after a period until that day, when I asked my older colleagues, who are 41 years old and 57, they said they have always only put one space after a period. Is it really that big of a deal to put two spaces after a period? I think it simplifies things, what happens if you abbreviate something with a period at the end of the abbreviation, I think there should be a difference between abbreviation and the end of a sentence.
I think the reason younger people do it is because they were taught the practice by older people, and as you can see from this long thread of comments, there are plenty of people of all ages who agree with you.
Carry on! What do you make of the iPhone and iPad shortcut to ending a sentence? The software is specifically set to insert a period if you quickly do 2 spaces at the end of a word! Hi Joe. Yes, this one has been brought up to me repeatedly, and I have no answers to this one! My family just brought this point up! However, what we realized is that by pressing space-bar 2X you get 1 period and 1 space after that period, not 1 period and 2 spaces after the period.
So Apple is not guiding you towards 2 spaces after that period. Definitely information teachers might need to know. Although much has been said here often repeatedly , there is one more factor that I would offer up for consideration: Many commenters here have emphatically stated that two spaces is more legible and esthetically pleasing and proponents of one space have argued the opposite. Until then, almost all publications in Germany were printed in Facktur fonts a condensed version of Blackletter — that heavy, spiky lettering only seen in churchs and other old-fashioned professions today.
The lesson from this is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and legibility is greatly influenced by what you are used to. Where does this leave us?
Continue to use double spaces if you feel you must, but just be aware that you are stuck in a practice that is contrary to the views of almost all contemporary professional typographers, publishers, and printers. Who insisted on using Fracktur for so long? The contemporary German professional typographers, publishers, and printers of their time is who.
I would prefer a 1. Continue to use single spaces if you must, but just be aware that you are stuck in a practice which has on balance demonstrably more negatives than benefits. The reasoning provided by double-spacers is consistently more cogent and substantive than the reasoning provided by contemporary typographers, Dutch or otherwise. One of my favorite memories from my days in the classroom revolves around the days when students were working at their desk and I was typing away at mine.
At least once a year one of the male students would have to come look over my shoulder in doubt that I could actually correctly type that fast without looking. Sounds like you might have had that happen in your class too! That happens with my own kids! They are just floored by how fast I can type. Such a useful skill! Thank you for being so simultaneously enlightening AND hilarious! And I love you for this comment! Thanks, Eva! I will disagree for exactly the reason you give, fonts.
I am a playwright. Even though I now write on a computer, my scripts appear in courier font. The scripts look typed, just as they always did. When writing in my Celtx word processor, I double space.
Not only does it give the actors a break, but it is easier to estimate the time a page of script will take in production. That keeps my aging neurons fresh. Another exception: writing computer code. Multiple spaces clarify the difference between the working instructions on the left, and the comments on the right. Hi, Jennifer. Please stop beating yourself up about this column.
By the way, I see us as kindred spirits. It, too, uses humor to point out many flaws in how we use language and ways to improve our use of it. The last letters are the same. Most measurements and scientific abbreviations do not use periods, but standard United States measurements and time abbreviations have a period at the end.
American English usually includes the period e. So, St which can also be an abbreviation of street but etc. Use the abbreviations Ave. British usage favours omitting the full stop in abbreviations which include the first and last letters of a single word, such as Mr, Mrs, Ms, Dr and St; American usage prefers A Mr. Period at the end of the sentence means, the things said in the sentence are definite and no change is allowed. Prepositions, Ending a Sentence With. In final position it can only refer to the phrase before it — which is an advantage, as it makes it clear.
We use only as an adverb to mean that something is limited to some people, things, an amount or an activity:. It is OK to use only before virtually any word to restrict its reference. Skip to content Uncategorized. How many spaces are there after a period at the end of an abbreviation? Table of Contents. To share with friends.
It's my opinion that the slash-space should be used. In the example you give in your comment, I would input that as agg lie etc. Besides, "etc. It's simply trying to be too clever. Probably the 2e kernel should define semantic commands for these purposes as well! Show 1 more comment. Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook. Sign up using Email and Password.
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