Spaces between sentences.

[CZroe]

I never said it was logical.

It's not correct to use contractions in formal writing. That doesn't change just because it's sometimes allowable and Word doesn't have a problem with it.

FYI: Word has font selections. Some of those fonts are mono-spaced like old typewriters where it is correct to use two spaces ("sometimes allowable"). Understand your word processor's logic and apply your own: extra work for no reason where it doesn't belong is not "correct" just because it was allowed. It wasn't correct before mono-spaced fonts and it's now that you aren't forced to use a mono-spaced font, well, nothing has changed. The only reason style guidelines enforce the practice is because they have applied to physically typed documents as long as they have to electronically typed documents.

 

[CZroe]

Even after almost three years since the start of the thread, I still use one space after period. If you can't see a period after an end of a sentence, then I can see why two spaces would be preferred. 1 > 2

Why are you saying this as if you were supposed to change? The people using two because they were taught on a typewriter or by a teacher who learned on a typewriter are the ones who are supposed to change. HTML enforces this change, so why even go through the effort?

 

[Mike64]

I didn't vote because there weren't enough choices and unlike political elections, that doesn't mean I'll automatically get stuck with the crappiest possible candidate.

"Back in the day" when there was a clear distinction between (originally monospaced) "typewriting" and "typesetting" (with its snazzier proportional fonts and kerning), there were different conventions for each. Typewriting used two spaces, typesetting used one. (An "em space", if I remember correctly, which is wider than the smaller "en space" which I believe was the standard width of the "space" on typewriters.)

At some point along the line as word processing became more sophisticated and proportional fonts and kerning became "standard" features of basically all word processors (early on, they were only available on high-end systems, not the likes of WordStar, etc), the typesetting/printing convention became the new general norm for everyone. Being over 40 myself, I still generally (more or less automatically) use 2 unless I'm working on something I think of as "desktop publishing" versus "regular typing" and yes, it does annoy me that virtually all web forums positively refuse to allow you to use 2 spaces without jumping through massive "tricky" hoops to insert them...

 

[CZroe]

At some point along the line as WYSIWYG word processing became the modern for "ordinary people" as well as printers, the typesetting/printing convention became the new general standard. Being over 40 myself, I still generally (more or less automatically) use 2 and yes, it does annoy me somewhat that virtually all web forums positively refuse to allow you to use 2 spaces without jumping through massive "tricky" hoops to insert them...

It's not the "web forums." It's HTML itself. You are fighting a basic web standard.

 

[dank69]

I was taught in the 70s that it is always 2 spaces after a period. Im not sure where this 1 space BS is coming from since then it becomes difficult to tell the difference between the start of a new sentence and the space between words...

lolno

 

[Mike64]

It's not the "web forums." It's HTML itself. You are fighting a basic web standard.

Ah. Well, the basic web standard can kiss my no-longer-quite-so-shiny, over-40 ass.

 

[CZroe]

I was taught in the 70s that it is always 2 spaces after a period. Im not sure where this 1 space BS is coming from since then it becomes difficult to tell the difference between the start of a new sentence and the space between words...

It was difficult with mono-spaced fonts because there was so much space between each letter within the same word. That isn't true now just like it wasn't true before mono-spaced fonts. The person and a space break up better and stand out in less space because the letters are more sense like they should be. They were never supposed to be spread out. It was a consequence of the primitive technology that the letter I was every bit as wide as the letter M or letter Z.
>IIIII< I*5
>ZZZZZ< Z*5

 

[CZroe]

Ah. Well, the basic web standard can kiss my no-longer-quite-so-shiny, over-40 ass.

How old is HTML again? :hmm:

 

[SKORPI0]

Was instructed to use 2 spaces on a manual typewriter. Used it when computers came out. :hmm:

 

[slag]

Why are you saying this as if you were supposed to change? The people using two because they were taught on a typewriter or by a teacher who learned on a typewriter are the ones who are supposed to change. HTML enforces this change, so why even go through the effort?

According to the latest APA standards, 2 is still the norm, not 1.

We don't change, the people using 1 need to change, even though MLA says 2 is still acceptable. APA says only 2, MLA says you can use 2. Seems like 2 is the correct number.

 

[Mike64]

How old is HTML again? :hmm:

23 years old.

Lemme put it this way: I'm old enough to be its father, but young enough to kick its ass (unless it were lifting weights or something.)


PS: If you're too young to remember when typesetters actually "set type" (as in little pieces of metal) versus typing on electronic "typesetting machines," much less "computers": get the hell off my lawn!

 

[CZroe]

23 years old.

Lemme put it this way: I'm old enough to be its father, but young enough to kick its ass (unless it were lifting weights or something.)


PS: If you're too young to remember when typesetters actually "set type" (as in little pieces of metal) versus typing on electronic "typesetting machines," much less "computers": get the hell off my lawn!

Type setters were setting type even before typewriters were mainstream.

I learned on a manual mechanical typewriter and taught myself at home (we didn't have a PC). I was still typing on an antique typewriter in 1994 when I could no longer find ribbons for it.

Anyway, unless you were born typing then HTML has been undoing what you do for much longer than you were doing it prior. You were a teenager then. If you haven't changed by now, WHY?!

 

[ctbaars]

Three shall be the number of spaces and the number of the spaces shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither shalt thou count two, excepting that thou then proceedeth to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the number of the spaces, be reached, then write thou the next sentence in the direction of thine custom, that, being expressive in my sight, shall express ones self."

 

[CZroe]

According to the latest APA standards, 2 is still the norm, not 1.

We don't change, the people using 1 need to change, even though MLA says 2 is still acceptable. APA says only 2, MLA says you can use 2. Seems like 2 is the correct number.

You do realize that APA only defines itself and not what is correct or incorrect elsewhere, right? Are you going to tell me that contractions are "incorrect" just because they aren't allowed in APA? It's a style guideline, FFS.

 

[Mike64]

Type setters were setting type even before typewriters were mainstream.

Well, yeah, in the West at least, since around 1450. But they'd stopped doing so, by and large (at least here in the US), by the mid-1970s...

I learned on a manual mechanical typewriter and taught myself at home (we didn't have a PC). I was still typing on an antique typewriter in 1994 when I could no longer find ribbons for it.

Ok, you don't have to get off my lawn. Would you in fact like a rocking chair here on the porch and perhaps a nice cup of tea? <rofl>

Anyway, unless you were born typing then HTML has been undoing what you do for much longer than you were doing it prior. You were a teenager then. If you haven't changed by now, WHY?!

Actually, I was in my late 20s when HTML apparently first came into existence, and very few people (presumably anyone outside of academia and research facilities like Bell Labs, CERN, etc) had even heard of it until 1995. Meanwhile, I'd been using computers for word-processing since my late teens (at least when I could get access, I didn't have one of my own until my mid-20s.) But back then, typewriting conventions were still the norm for ordinary-people word-processing, too. And anyway, as it turns out, according to several posts upthread which I hadn't seen when I first posted, one space may be the "HTML standard", but it is not (yet) a general "document production" norm...

 

[Drako]

Oh God, not this shit again. <smh>

 

[Jaskalas]

Look at y'all and yer fancy "typewriting" skills. It appears the world has moved on. :sneaky:

 

[Mike64]

I can't believe these results.

How many of you guys who voted for double space don't think continents are stationary or think humans breath through gills in the womb?

Or better yet that blood is blue before it "hits the air" or that your thumb isn't a finger?

I'm not entirely sure how to answer those questions, your use of negatives is confusing my easily-addled, middle-aged brain...

PS: I will say, however, that if your blood is "blue" in your arterial as well as venous circulatory system, I strongly urge you to walk (slowly and carefully) - not run (lest you fall down in a state of acute hypoxia) - to the nearest emergency room.

 

[Mike64]

Look at y'all and yer fancy "typewriting" skills. It appears the world has moved on. :sneaky:

Hey, when "the" big EMP hits, at least we'll be able to write typewrite proper letters-to-the-editor complaining that no one is doing anything about it.

 

[WelshBloke]

Hey, when "the" big EMP hits, at least we'll be able to write proper letters-to-the-editor complaining that no one is doing anything about it.

I have a green crayon.

Never underestimate the power of a strongly worded, over punctuated letter written in green crayon.

Particularly if you sign off with "and I know where you live!!!".

 

[Ichinisan]

I was taught in the 70s that it is always 2 spaces after a period. Im not sure where this 1 space BS is coming from since then it becomes difficult to tell the difference between the start of a new sentence and the space between words...

On the other end, your emails are rendered with only 1 space.

All of your web posts are rendered with only 1 space.

 

[Mike64]

Never underestimate the power of a strongly worded, over punctuated letter written in green crayon.

And pitchforks. Don't forget the pitchforks. Which I strongly suspect will (also?) come back into vogue after the "big one" hits...

 

[NoTine42]

Most of the report formatting rules drilled into you as a student are not needed in the real world, and are now also wrong when you try to check your children's homework

It's all a pointless scam by teachers to create busywork.

 

[slag]

You do realize that APA only defines itself and not what is correct or incorrect elsewhere, right? Are you going to tell me that contractions are "incorrect" just because they aren't allowed in APA? It's a style guideline, FFS.

It's a guideline used by professionals. Get with the program.

Btw, the answer is still 2. Go suck it.

 

[core2slow]

Decades ago i was taught to use double spaces. I guess now with the liberal education system conforming to the wills of the lazies, that a single space is acceptable.

Thanks Obama.