I have ALWAYS typed two spaces between sentences in a paragraph. Other folks insist that this is not the way to do it, and only use single spaces between sentences.

What say you?

Two spaces after a period....

Makes it easier on the reader.

I was always taught that two spaces after a period or exclamation is correct, but was just informed yesterday that the new style being taught is a single space.

I doubt I'll change.

the Chicago and MLA style manuals specify one space, a relatively recent evolution. I continue to use two spaces after periods in all writing, as I'm used to it, and prefer it.

AP Stylebook

If you look it up the two space thing is a hold over from typewriter use.

I still do it. I think it looks better and it's easier to pick out the different sentences of a paragraph that way.

One.

Double spaces exist because of monospaced typewriter fonts. Modern fonts on computers have the appropriate amount of space built into the font.

One is the correct answer, not a matter of opinion.

quote:

Originally posted by feersum dreadnaught:
the Chicago and MLA style manuals specify one space, a relatively recent evolution. I continue to use two spaces after periods in all writing, as I'm used to it, and prefer it.

This. I'm not changing.

I do two after sentence terminators (period, exclamation, question-mark). I do one following other sentence punctuation (comma, colon, semicolon, period when used to abbreviate, etc.)

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:
One.

Double spaces exist because of monospaced typewriter fonts. Modern fonts on computers have the appropriate amount of space built into the font.

One is the correct answer, not a matter of opinion.

That's your opinion

But Science says, two

Two spaces. Link

One space between each sentence, they said. Science just proved them wrong.

In the beginning, the rules of the space bar were simple. Two spaces after each period. Every time. Easy.

That made sense in the age of the typewriter. Letters of uniform width looked cramped without extra space after the period. Typists learned not to do it.

But then, at the end of the 20th century, the typewriter gave way to the word processor, and the computer, and modern variable-width fonts. And the world divided.

Some insisted on keeping the two-space rule. They couldn't get used to seeing just one space after a period. It simply looked wrong.

Some said this was blasphemy. The designers of modern fonts had built the perfect amount of spacing, they said. Anything more than a single space between sentences was too much.

And so the rules of typography fell into chaos. “Typing two spaces after a period is totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong,” Farhad Manjoo wrote in Slate in 2011. “You can have my double space when you pry it from my cold, dead hands,” Megan McArdle wrote in the Atlantic the same year. (And yes, she double-spaced it.)

This schism has actually existed throughout most of typed history, the writer and type enthusiast James Felici once observed (in a single-spaced essay).

The rules of spacing have been wildly inconsistent going back to the invention of the printing press. The original printing of the U.S. Declaration of Independence used extra long spaces between sentences. John Baskerville's 1763 Bible used a single space. WhoevenknowswhateffectPietroBembowasgoingforhere.Single spaces. Double spaces. Em spaces. Trends went back and forth between continents and eras for hundreds of years, Felici wrote.It's not a good look.

And that's just English. Somewrittenlanguageshavenospacesatall and o thers re quire a space be tween ev e ry syl la ble.

Ob viously, thereneed to be standards. Unless you're doing avant - garde po e try, or something , you can'tjustspacew ords ho w e v e r y o u want. That would be insanity. Or at least,

obnoxious.

Enter three psychology researchers from Skidmore College, who decided it's time for modern science to sort this out once and for all.

“Professionals and amateurs in a variety of fields have passionately argued for either one or two spaces following this punctuation mark,” they wrote in a paper published last week in the journal Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics.

They cite dozens of theories and previous research, arguing for one space or two. A 2005 study that found two spaces reduced lateral interference in the eye and helped reading. A 2015 study that found the opposite. A 1998 experiment that suggested it didn't matter.

“However,” they wrote, “to date, there has been no direct empirical evidence in support of these claims, nor in favor of the one-space convention.”

So the researchers, Rebecca L. Johnson, Becky Bui and Lindsay L. Schmitt, rounded up 60 students and some eye-tracking equipment, and set out to heal the divide.

First, they put the students in front of computers and dictated a short paragraph, to see how many spaces they naturally used. Turns out, 21 of the 60 were “two-spacers,” and the rest typed with close-spaced sentences that would have horrified the Founding Fathers.

The researchers then clamped each student's head into place, and used an Eyelink 1000 to record where they looked as they silently read 20 paragraphs. The paragraphs were written in various styles: one-spaced, two-spaced, and strange combinations like two spaces after commas, but only one after periods. And vice versa, too.

And the verdict was: two spaces after the period is better. It makes reading slightly easier. Congratulations, Yale University professor Nicholas A. Christakis. Sorry, Lifehacker.

Hurray! Science vindicates my longstanding practice, learned at age 12, of using TWO SPACES after periods in text. NOT ONE SPACE. Text is easier to read that way. Of course, on twitter, I use one space, given 280 characters. https://t.co/4xI6sVbF88 Will arm-wrestle @Neuro_Skeptic pic.twitter.com/XpEr4KFR4x

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:
One.

Double spaces exist because of monospaced typewriter fonts. Modern fonts on computers have the appropriate amount of space built into the font.

One is the correct answer, not a matter of opinion.

This is right, and is the reason for the old "rule." The underlying reason is no longer valid. One space, and Word will take care of it for you.

But I don't really care that much. Do whatever makes you happy.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
I do two after sentence terminators (period, exclamation, question-mark). I do one following other sentence punctuation (comma, colon, semicolon, period when used to abbreviate, etc.)

Same here... for many decades now.

Damn the single spacers, I say! Full double space ahead!

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:

And the verdict was: two spaces after the period is better. It makes reading slightly easier. Congratulations, Yale University professor Nicholas A. Christakis. Sorry, Lifehacker.

Yes, slightly easier. Sure.

And it would be even easier to read an entire paragraph if every sentence had its own line.

Or if every word were double spaced. (Funny how the forum automatically single spaces my words after i tried to double space them.)

Or
if
every
word
had
its
own
line.

How about that!
Frankly that scientific test is a giant, "duh."

I grew up double spacing on my word processor, but it's simply no longer necessary today. The answer is single space between sentences.

All I can say about this subject is lazy ass single spacers!

All I ask is that people learn the difference between then and than.

It's TWO spaces, and the toilet paper hangs over the front. Unless you were raised in the forest by wolves...

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
All I ask is that people learn the difference between then and than.

I'd be much happier if they figured out the difference between lose and loose. That one seems to have become an epidemic nowadays.

  metoo (there are two spaces before the "metoo")

Yep, it shows my age that I use two (2) spaces after a sentence. I really don't care. Phone numbers used to be written (555)555-555 then secretaries decided to go to 555/555-555 to save a keystroke. In the end, the message is the same. Do what is right for you and let those who ridicule you for it wallow in their petty self described superiority. There is way more to fret about.

quote:

Originally posted by HayesGreener:
It's TWO spaces, and the toilet paper hangs over the front. Unless you were raised in the forest by wolves...

+1

quote:

Originally posted by Skull Leader:
If you look it up the two space thing is a hold over from typewriter use. ...

Yup, when the only fonts available were monospace, where each character took the same amount of real estate on the page.

We went to single space after a period when proportional fonts came about and we were writing for the web (emails, websites...).

For websites, we generally remove those double spaces after a period. Occasionally they screw up the responsive/adaptive screen layout of websites when the browser width gets narrow ... like on a phone. (You get that extra space at the beginning of a line occasionally, kind of like an out-of-place indent.)