Tuesday, June 26, 2012
One space or two? How did I miss this debate?
This is wrong. Because there are two spaces before the word "Because."
This is correct. Because there is only one space before the word "Because."
At least according to this January 2011 article from Slate.com. Very interesting little history of typography, and I feel like I should have known this long before 2012. I guess I could start using only one space but it would be hard.
About 15 years ago, maybe more like 18?, a smart, talented, polite young writer came to work with me, and after a few months she smilingly and casually told me that, in a previous job, she had learned that one space was the more appropriate style. I smilingly thanked her for telling me about her former employer's interesting thoughts on spaces but I also told her that we would stick with the two-space rule. My boss agreed with me so that was that.
Now, all these years later, I want to apologize to Natalie. She was right, I was wrong. I wonder if I would care about this at all if I still worked?
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6 comments:
I learned to type with two. So that's what I still do. I think?
I know what is "correct" and so does my senior work colleague but we still use the two space because it looks clearer in type. For the Doctors' letters I use 2 space but for everything else like emails, letters, blogging, comments etc, I use 1 space. At the end of the day...my colleague IS my senior and I respect that too.
Shouldn't it be
"This is correct, because..."?
I learned to put two spaces between a period and the start of the next sentences, typing on a typewriter. Visually, I still prefer it, although HTML editors don't.
Yes Abby, you are 100% correct! But I'm retired now so I am bold enough to break all sorts of grammar rules. Incomplete sentences? They're A-OK with me. I mean, really, this is a blog. It gives me much pleasure to break rules on my blog. But it also brings me great pleasure to be a grammar nag on my blog. Inconsistency is my retirement fun. Trying to drive the hobgoblins from my mind. (Thank you Emerson.)
It's not a grammar thing. I learned to type on a manual typewriter, and was also taught the two-space rule. Then when electric typewriters and proportioned fonts became available, the rule changed to one space, because enough space was built into the period for appropriate spacing. It was hard to switch! Thank goodness for search-and-replace.
I learned to type using the two-spaces-after-a-period style. So, that's what I do.
I also learned a lot about formats for memos, business letters, personal correspondence, etc., and, given the terrile decline in those formalities, the issue of one or two spaces is kind of laughable.
I still remember the results of my bosses' generation of their "own" correspondence once they had PCs in their offices. As I did a lot of document editing, the habit of a particular boss of inserting hard returns at the end of every line used to drive me crazy.
When I left the job, he was still learning to master the wrap-around feature, but had a hard time resisting hitting those returns.
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