Controversial topic! 1 or 2 spaces after a period?

[ZenHedonist]

Back in the olden days of of mechanical typewriters we were taught to put 2 spaces after a period. When I attended the USAF JAG Paralegal school, they still made us do that, even though we were on computers.

It was a habit for me but I finally broke it. Now I'm a 1 spacer.

How were you taught? What do you do now?

Because my brain never really finishes a thought completely many times I abuse ellipses...

 

[ramblin]

I was definitely taught two spaces growing up. I held to it for a while after word processing programs and email clients started highlighting or auto-correcting two spaces back down to one. It seems that somewhere in there I made the switch without noticing it, since two spaces now feels awkward.

On the phone, of course, I end sentences with two spaces for speed, which it corrects to a period and a single space.

 

[Influenced]

Two Spacer.

 

[Ann_Sulu]

1 spacer, and I too abuse the ellipses relentlessly...

 

[Gen]

I was taught one space in typing/computer class! So it's always been a no-brainer for me.

 

[swagger]

I'm old school, so two spacer. Seems sometimes though when I'm typing on some devices, it get's auto-corrected to one space. That unnerves me, but the world still spins.

 

[JerryBoBerry]

Always been a single spacer. Did have a typing teacher one time tell us double space was correct for the manual typewriters in our class. But I just ignored her cause it looked silly and I never saw it done in any books I'd read.

 

[WickedTouch]

Old school single spacer here too. I've been using computers in a work capacity in the UK for 30 years now and standalone electronic word processors before that. Even when I was taught handwriting as a kid, it was just a single character space after each period.

 

[RogueWarrior]

I was taught two spaces. For years I've only been using one. The extra space seems useless. No spaces, however, is no good.Like this.

 

[AriaRose]

Wow, this is interesting. I never even thought about this or why we do it or whatever. Personally I don't think it should come down to anything but formatting. Like, if you can easily make the distinction based on formatting with one space it's fine, but if it's too close together, use two. Maybe even more. That's from someone who indeed grew up using PCs from a young age.

 

[AmberCutie]

Back in the olden days of of mechanical typewriters we were taught to put 2 spaces after a period. When I attended the USAF JAG Paralegal school, they still made us do that, even though we were on computers.

It was a habit for me but I finally broke it. Now I'm a 1 spacer.

How were you taught? What do you do now?

Because my brain never really finishes a thought completely many times I abuse ellipses...

I've got a friend who is irritatingly adamant about double space. I can't stand it.

 

[Lintilla]

One em space? Or kern everything manually Two spaces only came about because characters on typewriters were all the same width. Early computer fonts were often monospaced as well. There used to be and still are different sizes of spaces. To get the larger space between sentences traditionally used by typesetters, who of course did everything manually, you'd need to hit the key (at least) twice. I was taught typing in school by a teacher who had previously taught on typewriters, and it took a while to kick the two-space habit even though I always thought it was silly. These days, no matter how much space you prefer between words and sentences (lots of controversy about that) there shouldn't really be an excuse to press the actual space key twice, and in a lot of situations they'll collapse into one even if you do. Fonts and software can (well, should be able to) handle putting the correct spacing in there. Some old books I've read have huge spaces between words as well (they even spaced out punctuation--ellipses were like " . . . " ), but these days two spaces would look silly even if you used a typewriter. It's just out of fashion, for various reasons. So hit the key once.

Edit: I don't know how to insert longer spaces into this text editor, ironically, but... ellipses were enormous is all.

 

[SaffronBurke]

I was taught by a few different teachers that two spaces was correct. When I started interacting with other people on the internet, I learned that one was more common. I would use two for school papers, and one for forums and chat rooms.

 

[eyeteach]

Two spaces. And pro-ellipses.

 

[Johndoe91]

I was taught 2 spaces, but I don't think I've written anything since college that I was concerned about the spacing, and probably haven't double spaced since.

And if you look through my posts here, you'll notice my fondness of ellipses...

 

[THE MOLLIE MARIE]

I used two for sooooooo long. When I learned to type, it was on my grandmother's typewriter. I actually don't recall what they taught us in ~keyboarding~ class, which began in third grade I think. I only converted to one space maybe... two years ago? Three? Many many years after I started using computers, obviously.

Ellipses, however... I've always loved to use...

 

[AerynShade]

I was taught two spaces in jr high...but high school and college all wanted one space. So... yeah...

 

[yummybrownfox]

When I compose forum posts or Facebook posts, I do just one space after a period. It's just what looks and feels right to me.

 

[Lorelei]

I used two spaces for a very short period of time before I realized that all "modern" word processors would compensate for it! Also I love ellipses, but I don't love that most computers don't auto correct "..." (three periods) to "…" (the properly spaced ellipsis character). (Side note, but on Mac the shortcut is option+semicolon and on iOS you can get the character by holding the "." key.)

Don't even get me going on the difference between hyphens, en-, and em-dashes. (Seriously, don't. I don't need to lose any more street cred around here! )

P.S. I love Oxford commas.

 

[ZenHedonist]

I used two spaces for a very short period of time before I realized that all "modern" word processors would compensate for it! Also I love ellipses, but I don't love that most computers don't auto correct "..." (three periods) to "…" (the properly spaced ellipsis character). (Side note, but on Mac the shortcut is option+semicolon and on iOS you can get the character by holding the "." key.)

Don't even get me going on the difference between hyphens, en-, and em-dashes. (Seriously, don't. I don't need to lose any more street cred around here! )

P.S. I love Oxford commas.

Hyphenated...non-hyphenated...

 

[Lintilla]

I used two spaces for a very short period of time before I realized that all "modern" word processors would compensate for it! Also I love ellipses, but I don't love that most computers don't auto correct "..." (three periods) to "…" (the properly spaced ellipsis character). (Side note, but on Mac the shortcut is option+semicolon and on iOS you can get the character by holding the "." key.)

Don't even get me going on the difference between hyphens, en-, and em-dashes. (Seriously, don't. I don't need to lose any more street cred around here! )

P.S. I love Oxford commas.

I used two en dashes in my reply where I'd have preferred an em dash. I thought about mentioning, but then I didn't. I like when things like that are auto-corrected, when it's what I wanted. Problem is when I actually wanted exactly what I typed...

 

[headgasket]

Growing up, it was 2 spaces. Today, APA format is 1 space.

Here's a good one: names that end in S with a possessive.

Example: Hayes, a single person with this name, opposed to many Haye in a room.

It was Hayes's car, but now the standard for publishing is shifting back to Hayes' Car. Hayes' Car would denote that the room full of Haye owned one Toyota between the lot of them. Today it is going back to possessive of an individual.

 

[yummybrownfox]

I know this thread is supposed to be about spaces after a period. But the other day, I saw a 7-year old girl using the old school "finger space" method (I believe she used two fingers) in between the words she was writing on paper. I thought it was adorable, because I haven't witnessed anyone doing that in a long time.

 

[AerynShade]

Don't even get me going on the difference between hyphens, en-, and em-dashes. (Seriously, don't. I don't need to lose any more street cred around here! )

P.S. I love Oxford commas.

That's hot.

One of my favorite authors growing up used M-dashes a lot, and I was the nerd who always wanted to learn how we were supposed to use them and got mad that they were never covered in our Language Arts classes.

 

[Nikola Tesla]

I saw a 7-year old girl using the old school "finger space" method

You must explain this to me. I died in 1943 so this may be after my time. "new school"? lol...

 

[AuroraKnight]

You must explain this to me. I died in 1943 so this may be after my time. "new school"? lol...

When kids are first learning to write full sentences and what not on paper the words are supposed to be a finger width apart (if you put the tip of your finger against the page you should be able to see the end of the first word and the start of the second) 2 fingers sounds like a bit much, but then again I'm not in kindergarten so what do I know.

 

[yummybrownfox]

When kids are first learning to write full sentences and what not on paper the words are supposed to be a finger width apart (if you put the tip of your finger against the page you should be able to see the end of the first word and the start of the second) 2 fingers sounds like a bit much, but then again I'm not in kindergarten so what do I know.

I agree. When two fingers are used, I feel like it's just a wee bit too much space in between the words. When one finger is used, I think the spacing looks perfect.

 

[Johndoe91]

That makes me think of another related point. In school, writing papers, say three pages, two spaces seemed like an excellent idea on the off chance that it would make the paper long enough. I was not a four page person...

 

[EspiKvlt]

I have never heard of this "two spaces" thing before. Weird.

 

[SexySteph]

It depends, am I writing a paper with a minimum page count I need to reach?