Period Space or Period Space Space

[YKMV]

I learned on a manual typewriting machine in the mid-1960s.

I was taught Space Space. And I've read in various style books in college Space Space. I still do it and always will.
I also Oxford Comma.
And I never start a sentence with "And".
But I can never get the period when used with quotation marks right....

 

[Traveling Man]

I'm am qualified to answer this. I spent nearly two decades in the newspaper business and now teach high school senior English.

Grammar rules have changed since many of us were students. I'm 45. Associated Press style for newspapers is different than standard scholastic grammar rules.

I don't double space at the end of a sentence because of my newspaper background. I was taught to do so as a youngster, but it saves space. Newspapers also omit the Oxford comma to save space, but I use it now that I have gotten off the Titanic because is makes your writing more clear.

 

[ciderguy]

I'm in my mid-thirties. In elementary school everything was two spaces. The standard seemed to change when I was in middle school. One space seems to be the general consensus. Additionally, things that are professionally typeset always end up being with only a single space.

I'm also an unrepentant user of the serial comma. I find it genuinely confusing to read things without it.

 

[davent]

Received my Bachelor of Education in 1982 and this is the first I've heard of double spacing at the end of a sentence.

dave

 

[imatabor]

What is this thing called a grammar and why does it even really matter in fact if the spellcheck doesn't pick it up then it must be right you know really who cares because it is the fact that we are trying to communicate is more important than little things like periods or other markings you know what I mean right

 

[BSAGuy]

Looks like +/- 40 is the line of demarcation on this issue. 40+ = 2 spaces. 40- = 1 space.

 

[sfeile]

Looks like +/- 40 is the line of demarcation on this issue. 40+ = 2 spaces. 40- = 1 space.

I'm 44, and I was never taught to use a double space. I know of it having learned of it after school, but don't make a habit of doing it myself. I do use the Oxford comma though. Most of the time... I think...

 

[12345Michael54321]

I've been a touch typist for 44 years. I had an early advantage, in that my father owned a chain of secretarial schools. I had only limited access to the switchboards and the keypunch machines, but could type all I liked and was welcome to sit in on the Gregg shorthand classes.

When I learned to type, in the early 1970's, the rule was to double space after the punctuation ending a sentence. And that's what I did.

Today, the consensus opinion (The Chicago Manual of Style, the US Government Printing Office Style Manual, the AP Stylebook, and pretty much any typesetter you'll ever meet) is to single space after the punctuation ending a sentence. So that's what I do now. (Well, the APA Style Manual tends to flip-flop on this issue. They used to call for double spacing. Then single spacing. Then sometimes single and sometimes double.)

There are various reasons for this change.

First, back before everybody and his pet duck owned a computer, typing was done on typewriters. And almost all typewriters (yes, I'm aware of the freakish exceptions) used monospaced fonts. It was generally held that double spacing after the period improved the readability of copy turned out on such typewriters.

Today, almost all "typing" is done on computers, using proportional fonts. The readability of copy in a proportional font isn't enhanced by double spacing.

That's usually given as the main - perhaps only - reason for the shift. Frankly, it's a little suspect. Typesetters had been using single spaces after periods for many years before computers came along. They used single spaces with both monospaced fonts and proportional spaced fonts. Although to complicate things further, it's worth noting that typesetters weren't limited to just a single type of space. They had full spaces and wide spaces, thick spaces, thin spaces, middle spaces, hair spaces, and probably other types of spaces about which I've long forgotten. So maybe we should just ignore the whole typesetting part of the story.

Then there's the fact that HTML tends to turn double spaces into single spaces. In fact, any number of spaces will usually be turned into a single space. If you want two spaces, you have to hard code it as two spaces.

And on some modern touch-screen platforms, including Android and iOS, typing two spaces in a row is automatically interpreted to mean the end of a sentence, and a period is automatically inserted. But only one space is retained!

What it comes down to is that single spacing is currently the norm, at least most of the time, so that's what people should use most of the time. If you're submitting to a publisher who prefers double spaces after a period (and that you use a mono-spaced Courier font), then double space. If you're required to follow a particular style book which rules in your academic area, and that style book says to double space, then double space.

But unless there's such a reason for double spacing after the period, don't double space.

As for the Oxford ("serial") comma, there's not quite as much agreement on that one as there is on the single/double spacing thing. So I still employ the Oxford comma. It sometimes clarifies the meaning of a sentence. Also, back in 2nd grade, Mrs. Lasky taught us to use it, and even in 3rd grade Mr. Schwatt didn't object to it (mainly, I think, because Mr. Schwatt was intimidated by Mrs. Lasky, who'd already enjoyed considerable seniority some years prior to having been Methuselah's 2nd grade teacher).

And don't get me started on m-dashes, n-dashes, 3 and 4 em quads, and the like.

Oh, I should probably add that on those increasingly rare occasions when I type on an antique typewriter, I tend to revert to the old ways of doing things, and double space after the sentence-ending period.

Say, you know what else I haven't done in ages? Used the hand signal for a right hand turn, that I had to learn in driver's ed, back in 1979. Not that anybody used it even then. I honestly can't remember the last time I saw a driver signal a right turn that way. I wonder if it's still taught in driver's ed. Or tested for on the driver's license exam. It would make virtually no sense to include such a useless bit of information, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were still covered.

 

[Randall J]

Two spaces and the oxford comma! I heard journalists prefer one space because of the additional print space that is gained, but I don't prefer it.

 

[Alacrity59]

Looks like +/- 40 is the line of demarcation on this issue. 40+ = 2 spaces. 40- = 1 space.

Na. I learned to type in the early 70's. We were not taught that way.

 

[skijor]

Looks like +/- 40 is the line of demarcation on this issue. 40+ = 2 spaces. 40- = 1 space.

Nope. I'm 51, with twelve years of catholic schooling under my belt. One space is all I was ever taught.

 

[Black Adder]

Two spaces. Oxford comma, too. There is no other way.

Don

 

[12345Michael54321]

Two spaces. Oxford comma, too. There is no other way.

Reminds me of that George Pal film which was on TCM, the other night.

An inventor in Victorian England constructed a machine that enabled him to travel into the distant future. He travels forward to the year 802,701, only to discover that mankind's descendants have divided into two species - the passive, childlike, vegetarian, double-spacing, and Oxford comma-using Eloi, and the underground-dwelling Morlocks, who single-space, don't use the Oxford comma, and who feed on the Eloi.

I'm pretty sure it was fictional, and not a documentary.

Now if you'll excuse me, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes starts in a few minutes on FX. It's about a growing nation of genetically evolved apes who double space, led by Caesar, and a band of human, single-spacing survivors of a virus unleashed a decade earlier. They're able to reach peace, but it proves short lived as both sides are brought to the brink of war over the Oxford comma.

 

[musicman1951]

I learned the double space when I was learning on a typewriter. I don't think I ever use it on a computer. It's actually something I have not considered in 40 years, so I guess it's not going to be my next pet peeve.

 

[mark1JT]

The author of that note must be from Newfoundland.

"I IS OUT PLEASE GET ME MORE LEFT IT BY LOCKER I WILL FIND WHEN I COMES IN TOMORROW"

 

[BSAGuy]

Reminds me of that George Pal film which was on TCM, the other night.

An inventor in Victorian England constructed a machine that enabled him to travel into the distant future. He travels forward to the year 802,701, only to discover that mankind's descendants have divided into two species - the passive, childlike, vegetarian, double-spacing, and Oxford comma-using Eloi, and the underground-dwelling Morlocks, who single-space, don't use the Oxford comma, and who feed on the Eloi.

I'm pretty sure it was fictional, and not a documentary.

Now if you'll excuse me, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes starts in a few minutes on FX. It's about a growing nation of genetically evolved apes who double space, led by Caesar, and a band of human, single-spacing survivors of a virus unleashed a decade earlier. They're able to reach peace, but it proves short lived as both sides are brought to the brink of war over the Oxford comma.

 

[Cash_Stronomer]

The author of that note must be from Newfoundland.

Sadly, from here!

 

[sfeile]

Reminds me of that George Pal film which was on TCM, the other night.

An inventor in Victorian England constructed a machine that enabled him to travel into the distant future. He travels forward to the year 802,701, only to discover that mankind's descendants have divided into two species - the passive, childlike, vegetarian, double-spacing, and Oxford comma-using Eloi, and the underground-dwelling Morlocks, who single-space, don't use the Oxford comma, and who feed on the Eloi.

I'm pretty sure it was fictional, and not a documentary.

Now if you'll excuse me, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes starts in a few minutes on FX. It's about a growing nation of genetically evolved apes who double space, led by Caesar, and a band of human, single-spacing survivors of a virus unleashed a decade earlier. They're able to reach peace, but it proves short lived as both sides are brought to the brink of war over the Oxford comma.

Caves are cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Plus you never have to re-shingle the roof, just mow it occasionally.

 

[John Rose]

I'm 63, took typing in high school, and we were never taught to use "period-space-space".

I was not taught the Oxford comma. I just adopted it spontaneously.

Bonus content, irrelevant to this thread: My favourite typeface (not "font") for an E-reader is "Bitter", a nice slab-serif.

 

[August West]

Traditionally a double spacer.

I am still in a infinite loop of confusion regarding when to use who or whom. Now, please spare me the Strunk & White explanation and give it to me straight.