Wednesday 23 May 2012

WDYT | 2 spaces or 1?

I've noticed just recently (today, yesterday, last week) that some bloggers have been doing something weird. Well, not weird, annoying. To the point that I click away (and if you're into statistics, that makes for a bad bounce rate), so I asked on facebook this morning why it was happening, and it seems that I'm the weird one! So, I thought I'd put it to the blogosphere, in the hopes that they'd back my argument and clarify the issue for me.


Can you see it? No? Okay, I'll show you another one.


Now you can see it, right? Spaces. In fact, two spaces after a full stop. Facebook peeps tell me I'm wrong; even Wikipedia, the font of all knowledge, says I'm wrong.

Wait. Wait. Hold on a second!

Did you read that?

What it says there, under "spacing after a full stop"


So, to all those people who said "that's what I was taught", you're right, it was what you were taught on a typewriter. But it isn't modern-day convention when using digital media.

What do you think? 2 spaces, or 1?
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17 comments

  1. OOOh, as a typist from way back ;-) (showing my age here) I always put two spaces after a full stop. I don't think I will ever get out of the habit. When you are typing 75+ wpm, you don't even think about what you are doing ;-)

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    1. Cathy, there was a range of ages in the facebook discussion, from under thirty to over sixty, and they were ALL taught the same way!

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  2. It is what I was taught too, but I think it looks odd on screen so I've taken up the new convention. I hate swiggly red lines under what I've typed! Not that anyone else seems to give a toss about punctuation any more.

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    1. Kirsty, my mum is a punctuation nazi, so I've always been good with it! I can't even text with bad punctuation, and many times have asked my 14yo to explain what she meant to say!

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  3. Your comments came at a spookily appropriate time for me as I am a secretary in a High School and the office manager is an ex English teacher. No bad grammar or spelling mistake gets past that lady! She is a stickler for 'correctness' and last Thursday in our termly meeting she handed out a sheet of 'House Rules' for correspondence going out from the school. Things like not putting commas at the end of address lines, justifying all text in letters and newsletters, when to put a full stop when you are bullet pointing things etc and one of the rules was - ALWAYS put two spaces after a full stop! Something that came naturally to us old girls in the office, my thumb automatically presses that space bar twice. Guess this means you won't be reading my blog any more :-(

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    1. I've never noticed it on your blog! Maybe because I "know you", so I tune it out, and the blogs I've been noticing it on are big "professional" bloggers who are trying to make money out of it. I promise, I'll be reading!

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  4. I did not even notice and had to go back when you pointed it out and check again. I don't know if I could ever get used to one space after a full stop.

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    1. I wonder how many people who use Apple gadgets have changed their habits with the double-tap of the space bar creating a full stop?!

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  5. As a former typing teaching, we taught two spaces after a period for years (the way that I learned it). However, it is no longer necessary with computers. It took me SEVERAL years to break the habit of two spaces because it was second nature to just space-space after the end of the sentence.

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    1. Melissa, I always learn something new about you!

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  6. I am having to type unconsciously to see what I even do. I thought for sure it would be 2 spaces but it's one but maybe I do both lol. Doesn't bother me at all, I am much more into content than conventions.

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    1. content is great, but if the conventions make it look disjointed, then it will never be read, in my opinion.

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  7. According to Cathy Zielske, in her Design Your Life class and Ten Tips for Better Type, the two spaces after a fullstop is indeed redundant and should no longer be used as it breaks up the text too much and is distracting to read. I've always used one space as I did not learn to type on a typewriter.

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    1. thanks for that, Amy, I never took that class, but I think I must have been channeling my inner-Cathy, she was the only graphic designer I could think of!

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  8. I have just checked and I'm a single space-er, but then I was never a typist!
    Alison xx

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  9. I was taught in typing class that two spaces was correct, and frankly I still do it because I think it is more pleasing to the eye and restful to the mind. See what I mean.

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  10. Actually it looks as though Blogger just took the second space out anyway. I suppose it is insisting on the new convention. But since I type without thinking, I will always be making the extra space whether it shows or not.

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