Two spaces vs. one space?
 

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Space Invaders
Why you should never, ever use two spaces after a period.
By Farhad ManjooPosted Thursday, Jan. 13, 2011, at 6:20 PM ET

Extra space.Can I let you in on a secret? Typing two spaces after a period is totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong.

And yet people who use two spaces are everywhere, their ugly error crossing every social boundary of class, education, and taste.* You'd expect, for instance, that anyone savvy enough to read Slate would know the proper rules of typing, but you'd be wrong; every third e-mail I get from readers includes the two-space error. ...
(cont.@ http://www.slate.com/id/2281146 )
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I have been typing with two spaces after each period for about twenty years now; all my teachers from elementary through high school insisted on it (college professors didn't seem to care as long as you were consistent). It's instinct; trying to type with only one space is painful. I'm curious to get other thoughts on this? Have I really been typing everything wrong (including my cover letters?!) my entire life?

I've never heard of anyone using two spaces. Interesting...

I used one space all through high school (although not really an issue since we were still HAND WRITING most things), until I was told in college that you should use two.

I believe it's leftover from typing typing (like, on a typewriter). Something about how if you only used one space, the way the period would go onto the paper was wonky and you needed to use two to signify the end of a sentence. Now that we're into computers and it's much more apparent what the end of a sentence is, only one is necessary, but I find myself using two all the time.

Even typing this little blurb with only one space between period and new sentence is proving difficult.

I read this yesterday and was so happy to see it! I have to correct my reports everyday, and the question of one or two spaces has plagued me for a long time (though not enough to look it up!) I learned to type on an old manual typewriter (with no letters on the keys) that my middle school found somewhere and then on electric typewriters in "keyboarding" class in HS. It was drilled into our heads to space twice after the period at the end of a sentence but only once after a period for an abbreviation, etc. I never knew the rules changed with computer fonts. Nice to know! I'm OCD like that so this rule will go into immediate practice.

You are typing correctly, at least as far as I'm concerned. :D

Actually. both are right. Two spaces follow a sentence in typewritten (as in done on a typewriter) in order to make the text easier to read. It's not required in typeset fonts, like one typically has in a word processing program, but it got carried over by the people who learned to type on typewriters. I know some word processing programs did (and perhaps still do) automatically replace a single space after a period with two spaces unless you set it not to. I still think two spaces is easier to read/looks better, especially given that proportional spacing will adjust it some anyway. Often with proportional spacing, one space just puts sentences too close together for my taste.

The rule was two for those of us who learned on typewriters, but agzg is right about computers. I THINK it's because we are using different fonts now. Andy and I were talking about this last night, because a friend had posted about it on Facebook. He had never heard of the new rule and I wasn't aware of it until I took a Technical Writing class two years ago. Facebook, however, does autocorrect, which I had never noticed.

It was the opposite with me. Proportional spacing made the space too wide with two spaces after the period. This is what made me second guess the second space. My reports just looked weird with two spaces between each sentence. I started wondering if I'd just made up that rule...it had been 20 years since I took keyboarding so anything was possible! :p

Well even though we learned to type on computers in my school, they still weren't readily accessible (there was not a computer in every home, in fact, most people only ever saw a computer in the library or in the school when they were teaching us to type), so I think they tought us the old typists' rules rather than the new, especially if the "new" was still being worked out.

I'm still in shock that it's been 20 years (really 22) since I took keyboarding in 9th grade! I'm getting old!

The only person to insist that I switch to one space between sentences is such a disgusting cretin that I would have to have a thunderbolt to ever consider using one.SPACESPACEI will continure in my present form until the day I die.

16 going on 17 for me but that's because we started in the 4th grade (at least the school got that right - kids need to learn to type earlier and earlier). They just weren't around a lot because I'm from a really backwards (at least economically) area that didn't get broadband internet until 2000. There are still towns in my area that don't have access to broadband internet.

My middle school was a very small, private, Christian school. I have no idea where they got the manual typewriters that we were taught on, but I did take typing in the 8th grade. Even with no letters on the keys, my teacher would tape a piece of paper over my hands so I could look at my fingers on the keys. People are amazed at how well I type. My poor sister never took typing...she is the classic hunt and peck style typist. Pitiful!

My typing teacher was also my home room teacher. She was forever telling college bound students that most of the teachers agreed that typing was the one high school class they appreciated the most.


PS: FWIW, she was a ChiO.

I realize I should have been more specific. I tend (for work at least) to use full justification rather than left margin justification. It's the combination of full justification and proporational spacing that can push the sentences too close together if there's only one space.

I learned to type on a computer, but I was taught that you put two spaces after a period. Now it's ingrained in me - one space just looks wrong. Like honeychile, I'll be using two spaces until the day I die, no matter what some asshat who writes for Slate says.

I have always used two spaces, as that is just how I was taught in high school. Even though I still read a (gasp!) print newspaper everyday, I had never even noticed that the entire world had moved on and left me behind with my typewritter era style. I saw this article earlier this week and have been trying to adjust to just one space, but the motor memory that my fingers have has been slow to adjust.

A friend, who also is a 2-spacer, noted that facebook automatically fixes the space issue- it converts everything to one space no matter how you type it. The iPhone, however, automatically adds a period if you space twice.

Back in the olden days when we doddering baby boomers took typing in 8th grade, it was two spaces after a period. Always. Got dinged for it on college papers if they did not have that spacing. Farhad Manjoo (the writer of the article) needs to get his/her panties out of a twist on this one.

i have a friend who uses spaces before punctuation. it drives me BONKERS. what is that about?

The APA Style that was required when I was in college the first time dictated that two spaces be used. NEW in APA 6.0 is the switch to one space. When we do group projects, the person doing the final editing has been going through doing Find and Replace to change two spaces to one. It saves a lot of headache and catches them all, thank goodness. I have adjusted to one space now.

I've been typing with two spaces for 30 years. I suppose I should try to switch to one space but I don't know that my fingers could do it. I'm not happy about this at all.

Love it! I was taught by my parents to use two spaces after a period, and one after a comma, and I will continue doing so. Another pet punctuation peeve of mine is the omission of a comma immediately before the "and" in a list. This is a source of controversy at my office.

Ahhh the series comma debate. Have you seen Eats, Shoots & Leaves?

I was always taught that, in a list, the commas belong as follows: item a, item b, item c, item d and item e. Of course, commas are extremely controversial in general around here - in college, a common complaint amongst all the professors was that Georgia public schools (K-12) teach an overuse of commas. (Weirder still, since moving to my current city in Georgia, I've discovered that everyone who grew up here learned the strangest capitalization rules I've ever seen. It's like they think they're German.)

I'm more upset about being changed from a Libra to a Virgo than being told I'm wrong for using two spaces. I'm gonna keep on keepin' on.

^^Unless you're two you don't have to worry about the astrological sign thing - completely debunked. :)

I was always taught that the end of the series comma (rainbows, ponies, sunshine, and unicorns are everywhere) was strictly personal preference. I honestly am 50-50 as to how I use this one.

And I want to see the German punctuation. Are they speaking PA Dutch to go with it? (example: "Throw me down my purse.")

They just randomly capitalize nouns for no apparent reason. At first, I just thought it was a quirk of my (now former) boss' writing style, but then I saw others writing and realized a lot of people here do it.

I was always taught not to use that last comma unless it's needed for the series to make sense. ("The specials today are shepherd's pie, roast beef and potatoes, bangers and mash, and plowman's lunch.")

Well, no. It's not random -- all nouns are capitalized in German -- and it's for a reason. The reason is that the rule in German is that all nouns are capitalized, just like the rule in English is that all proper nouns are capitalized. :p

If you look at older English writings -- I think the Declaration of Independence is an example -- you'll see we used to capitalize all nouns, too.

I realize it isn't random in German - I meant that it seems to be random how people I've met will capitalize nouns in English.

I believe I was taught two spaces in grade school. Somewhere along the way I switched it up to one, and never looked back. Mostly out of laziness. Yes, I am too lazy to hit the extra space.

I was taught to double space in middle school, I believe. That wasn't too long ago and I am not a fan of the recent change to one space. I think it makes the sentences look smushed. Even though I hold a BA in English, I just really like the aesthetics of the two spaces, rules be darned.

I think that the author is being a little dramatic. Using two spaces after a sentence is unnecessary, but should not be classified as wrong. I wholeheartedly agree with aephialum's assessment of "asshat" and will continue to double space after sentences.

In regard to the Oxford comma, I was taught it was optional, but my elementary school self decided that not doing something because it was optional was lazy. Some people regard it as being a little pompous, but I couldn't stop if I tried.

Hee hee...I hate the Oxford comma and don't use it. My transcriptionists ALWAYS use it...I gave up removing it a long time ago.

The only time I purposely use one space only is Facebook status updates, because of the limited space - and it's still painful to do!

Many of the words that I type that start with the letter I end up capitalized, thanks to the magic of Autospell. Sometimes, it's just too much trouble to go back and fix,especially if I don't notice until after I've posted.

I immediately put this song on when I read Munchkin's post. I was hoping someone else would be a Vampire Weekend fan!

Good point - I will use one space to save room in tweets or text messages.

This Totally made Me Think of Earp. :D:D:p:cool:

On another note - I remember our 6th grade teacher making us type a book report on the computer, and told us to do it double spaced.

11 year old tld221, who grew up without a computer until 9th grade (and didnt take typing until... 10th?) didnt know this meant spacing between EACH LINE. My mother, who is still relatively young (i dont think SHE even learned how to type on a typewriter) told me it meant two spaces between each word.

So my report looked like this. Ms. Gill thought I was being a wiseguy and I remember getting a bad grade.

ETA: ^^^ even GC autoedits to single space, because I can see it as i'm typing, but when i hit "Reply" its all single space. Bah.

also, now i have this "who gives a f*ck about an oxford comma?" stuck in my head. thaaaaaaanks.

It isn't GC or Facebook - it's HTML. I don't know why, but it just does that.

Hah, this is ridiculous, I was taught two spaces in both middle school (when we took typing) and freshman year of high school (going over the basics for paper writing). I really wasn't even aware that people use one space. There is no way I'm switching.