Number of spaces after a sentence?

frank · Post by **frank** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 7:51 pm

All of my life I have always only used one space after a period. I was just wondering, what do you guys use. I'm talking about formal writing, such as memos and letters and stuff like that. The reason that I am asking is because I was recently told by my teacher that you should always have 2 spaces after a new sentence. So I ask you, how many spaces after a sentence in formal writing.

Thanks,
Frank

~ · Post by ~ » Tue Mar 13, 2007 7:59 pm

You should ask why, since a period always is the end of any sentence.

frank · Post by **frank** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 8:01 pm

Crap, I meant how many spaces after the period at the end of the sentence, before you start typing the next sentence.

Alboin · Post by **Alboin** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 8:10 pm

I always use 1 space.

If we were meant to use two spaces, there would be an ASCII code for it.

Colonel Kernel · Post by **Colonel Kernel** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 8:24 pm

For many years, I also used two spaces, because in grade school that's what my teachers told me to use. But then I started using FrameMaker to write formal technical documents, and it actually forces you to use only one space (if you hit spacebar twice after typing a period, it just ignores the second key press). My boss at the time, who is an unapologetic typography geek, said that putting two spaces was common practice back when everyone was using typewriters, which of course have only fixed-width fonts. Now we have variable-width fonts, and our word processors (like trusty FrameMaker) should be smart enough to make the space between sentences big enough to enhance readability.

Solar · Post by **Solar** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 12:43 am

I learned typing on a mechanical typewriter. (As a little boy; probably the reason for both my awkard six-finger typing style - my small fingers were too weak to push the keys - and my first-grader handwriting.

) My grandma used mechanical typewriters for all the fourty-something years of her working life as a secretary.

I have never heard of, or seen, two spaces after a period.

pcmattman · Post by **pcmattman** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 1:22 am

Two spaces after a period is another American obfuscation of the real English language...

AndrewAPrice · Post by **AndrewAPrice** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 1:31 am

Most of the time in printed text you can't tell if there is an extra space there or if their typesetting program justified the spacing itself.

Colonel Kernel · Post by **Colonel Kernel** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 2:15 am

pcmattman wrote:Two spaces after a period is another American obfuscation of the real English language...

And Canadian too, apparently.

Solar · Post by **Solar** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 4:08 am

@ MessiahAndrw:

In printed text, i.e. text in proportional font that has been through a computer, placing two spaces after a period is nonsense, because spacing should be done by the software. Printed text is usually left-and-right justified, so the distance between characters varies anyway.

In typed text, i.e. typewriter, as I said I haven't ever heard of this convention. It might have been a convention I simply missed because I never got a formal typewriter's education, but to my knowledge I also have never read a letter that was written in this style.

Today, where about every text is being processed by computers instead of typed mechanically, I'd tell anyone trying to tell me to use two spaces after a period to get a life. If he wants to see more distance between period and next sentence, he shall edit his style templates.

By the way, HTML does swallow multiple whitespaces anyway, so both websites and the ever-popular HTML e-mail (*puke*) cannot have two spaces after a period.

A quick scan of company PDF's I have available seems to confirm this. IBM, Rational, Reuters, Sun, Sybase, all use one space. The exception is Bloomberg, who use one or two spaces apparently at random.

AJ · Post by AJ » Wed Mar 14, 2007 4:24 am

Solar wrote: By the way, HTML does swallow multiple whitespaces anyway, so both websites and the ever-popular HTML e-mail (*puke*) cannot have two spaces after a period.

Strong feelings there! Of course, the exception is if you use an HTML generator such as NetObjects, which will use tables to put in as many spaces as you like (I'm not advocating this!).

Certainly when I was helping someone with typing and formatting MPhil and PhD theses, the university's rule was two spaces between sentences, but they did also have odd margin, paragraph and line spacing rules too - I think the rules were just for the sake of it.

Also, the rules above were in the days of BBC computers when automatic formatting didn't really happen!

I don't know why there seem to be 'formatting evangelists' around - if it's clear enough to read, who cares

Adam

Brynet-Inc · Post by **Brynet-Inc** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 8:42 am

I've never ended a sentence with two spaces, And I've personally never met anyone who does this in Canada either.

I hate HTML email myself Solar.. disgusting..

bubach · Post by **bubach** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 2:25 pm

if you use hard spaces with alt + 0160 (numerical keyboard) or in html you can have as many as you want...

i also memorize the alt + number combinations for åäö when i'm abroad

pcmattman · Post by **pcmattman** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 3:21 pm

Ohhhh... please don't! My eyes!! It's too hard to read!

This is why you're not meant to have two spaces after a period.

earlz · Post by **earlz** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 9:41 pm

dare to compare!!

shello, well I guess I will randomly type crap. Is it fun? Well not really. The only place I type random crap is in typing class... Yea!

shello, well I guess I will randomly type crap. Is it fun? Well not really. The only place I type random crap is in typing class... Yea!

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Number of spaces after a sentence?

Number of spaces after a sentence?

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