One or two spaces after a full stop

Travelar

I like two; however, when I went back to school last year I had to follow APA guidelines on my papers. APA format says one space. Anything more, and I get dinged for points. :(

norm

redrock wrote:

Two after a full stop and one after a comma. Still relevant as my daughter, who is 13, was also taught this at school.

tis correct

ZiggyStar

Great. Thanks guys. TWO it is then.

Yet books only use one....hmmmm.....

Heineken Helen

Chime wrote:

Same here and I've always done two after a full stop one after a comma. Never had anyone comment or say it was wrong either.

Yip, this is the first I've ever heard of it.

I'd imagine books use one as a cost saving thing. Imagine all the extra spaces would probably save a few pages... especially if a book is in mass production. Although that could be complete bullshit

pjfan31

I am one space person.

chadwick

It's one space.
It's not two spaces.
However, I'll try and remember to ask my English teacher today.
She'll know something about it I'm sure.

btw, when I wrote that poetry book last year.
One space, size 12 font, I believe this is a size 12 font right here.

redrock

Here you go... either/or

"In typewritten texts and other documents printed in fixed-width fonts, there is a convention among lay American English writers that two spaces are placed after the full stop (along with the other sentence enders: question mark and exclamation mark), as opposed to the single space used after other punctuation symbols. This is sometimes termed "French spacing".

In modern English-language typographical usage, debate has arisen concerning the proper number of trailing spaces after a full stop (or exclamation mark, or question mark) to separate sentences within a paragraph. Whereas two spaces are still regarded by many outside the publishing industry to be the better usage for monospace typefaces, the awkwardness that most word-processing applications have in representing correctly the 1.5 spaces that had previously become standard for typographically proportional (non-monospace) fonts has led to some confusion about how to render the space between sentences using only word-processing tools.

Many descriptivists (i.e., people who describe how language is used in practice) support the notion that a single space after a full stop should be considered standard because it has been the norm in mainstream publishing for many decades. This is supported by the MLA, APA[6], and The Chicago Manual of Style.[7] Many prescriptivists (i.e., people who make recommendations for rules of language use), meanwhile, adhere to the earlier use of two spaces on typewriters to make the separation of sentences more salient than separation of elements within sentences. Since current style guides are founded on the consensus of practice, the evidence strongly suggests that most people accept the single space in modern word-processing, largely for the reason that two spaces may stretch inordinately when full justification is applied. Additionally, many computer typefaces are designed proportionately to alleviate the need for the double space (the opposition would of course reply that this does nothing to satisfy the aforementioned saliency issue). Most widely accepted contemporary style guides categorically require that only one space be placed after full stops and similar punctuation marks, and they characterise modern practice as avoiding it.[8]

With the advent of the World Wide Web, the broader distinction between full stop spacing and internal spacing in a sentence has become largely moot. Standardized HTML treats additional whitespace after the first space as immaterial (siding unquestioningly with the one-spacers), and ignores it when rendering the page. A common workaround for this is the use of   character entity (non-breaking space) to represent extra spaces, and this is done automatically by some WYSIWYG editors.

An argument for having two spaces after a full stop arises from accessibility, or universal design. It is often reported that people with dyslexia prefer double spacing after a full stop.[9] See justification (typesetting) for further discussion."

rhinomagic

redrock wrote:

Here you go... either/or

"In typewritten texts and other documents printed in fixed-width fonts, there is a convention among lay American English writers that two spaces are placed after the full stop (along with the other sentence enders: question mark and exclamation mark), as opposed to the single space used after other punctuation symbols. This is sometimes termed "French spacing".

In modern English-language typographical usage, debate has arisen concerning the proper number of trailing spaces after a full stop (or exclamation mark, or question mark) to separate sentences within a paragraph. Whereas two spaces are still regarded by many outside the publishing industry to be the better usage for monospace typefaces, the awkwardness that most word-processing applications have in representing correctly the 1.5 spaces that had previously become standard for typographically proportional (non-monospace) fonts has led to some confusion about how to render the space between sentences using only word-processing tools.

Many descriptivists (i.e., people who describe how language is used in practice) support the notion that a single space after a full stop should be considered standard because it has been the norm in mainstream publishing for many decades. This is supported by the MLA, APA[6], and The Chicago Manual of Style.[7] Many prescriptivists (i.e., people who make recommendations for rules of language use), meanwhile, adhere to the earlier use of two spaces on typewriters to make the separation of sentences more salient than separation of elements within sentences. Since current style guides are founded on the consensus of practice, the evidence strongly suggests that most people accept the single space in modern word-processing, largely for the reason that two spaces may stretch inordinately when full justification is applied. Additionally, many computer typefaces are designed proportionately to alleviate the need for the double space (the opposition would of course reply that this does nothing to satisfy the aforementioned saliency issue). Most widely accepted contemporary style guides categorically require that only one space be placed after full stops and similar punctuation marks, and they characterise modern practice as avoiding it.[8]

With the advent of the World Wide Web, the broader distinction between full stop spacing and internal spacing in a sentence has become largely moot. Standardized HTML treats additional whitespace after the first space as immaterial (siding unquestioningly with the one-spacers), and ignores it when rendering the page. A common workaround for this is the use of   character entity (non-breaking space) to represent extra spaces, and this is done automatically by some WYSIWYG editors.

An argument for having two spaces after a full stop arises from accessibility, or universal design. It is often reported that people with dyslexia prefer double spacing after a full stop.[9] See justification (typesetting) for further discussion."

Something about your post seems so familiar. I wonder what it could be.

dunkman wrote:

Spacing after full stop
In typewritten texts and other documents printed in fixed-width fonts, there is a convention among lay American English writers that two spaces are placed after the full stop (along with the other sentence enders: question mark and exclamation mark), as opposed to the single space used after other punctuation symbols. This is sometimes termed "French spacing".

In modern English-language typographical usage, debate has arisen concerning the proper number of trailing spaces after a full stop (or exclamation mark, or question mark) to separate sentences within a paragraph. Whereas two spaces are still regarded by many outside the publishing industry to be the better usage for monospace typefaces, the awkwardness that most word-processing applications have in representing correctly the 1.5 spaces that had previously become standard for typographically proportional (non-monospace) fonts has led to some confusion about how to render the space between sentences using only word-processing tools.

Many descriptivists (i.e., people who describe how language is used in practice) support the notion that a single space after a full stop should be considered standard because it has been the norm in mainstream publishing for many decades. This is supported by the MLA, APA[6], and The Chicago Manual of Style.[7] Many prescriptivists (i.e., people who make recommendations for rules of language use), meanwhile, adhere to the earlier use of two spaces on typewriters to make the separation of sentences more salient than separation of elements within sentences. Since current style guides are founded on the consensus of practice, the evidence strongly suggests that most people accept the single space in modern word-processing, largely for the reason that two spaces may stretch inordinately when full justification is applied. Additionally, many computer typefaces are designed proportionately to alleviate the need for the double space (the opposition would of course reply that this does nothing to satisfy the aforementioned saliency issue). Most widely accepted contemporary style guides categorically require that only one space be placed after full stops and similar punctuation marks, and they characterise modern practice as avoiding it.[8]

With the advent of the World Wide Web, the broader distinction between full stop spacing and internal spacing in a sentence has become largely moot. Standardized HTML treats additional whitespace after the first space as immaterial (siding unquestioningly with the one-spacers), and ignores it when rendering the page. A common workaround for this is the use of   character entity (non-breaking space) to represent extra spaces, and this is done automatically by some WYSIWYG editors.

An argument for having two spaces after a full stop arises from accessibility, or universal design. It is often reported that people with dyslexia prefer double spacing after a full stop.[9] See justification (typesetting) for further discussion.

.

decides2dream

illegal_pants wrote:

2... !

exactly!

redrock

rhinomagic wrote:

Something about your post seems so familiar. I wonder what it could be.





.

That will teach me not to read a thread through! Or... another explanation.. I am so in awe of Dunkman that I have to repeat what he says!

Sorry guys! Will pay attention next time!

GreenTeaDisease

I always learned 2 and then I worked for this company that had its own "style" we had to always use it was only 1 and everyone was like "no one uses 2 spaces anymore. that was back in the days of typewriters." now I don't even know what I do.

drivingrl

dunkman wrote:

With the advent of the World Wide Web, the broader distinction between full stop spacing and internal spacing in a sentence has become largely moot. Standardized HTML treats additional whitespace after the first space as immaterial (siding unquestioningly with the one-spacers), and ignores it when rendering the page. A common workaround for this is the use of   character entity (non-breaking space) to represent extra spaces, and this is done automatically by some WYSIWYG editors.

omg, that irritates the bejeesus out of me. I'm a firm believer in adding two spaces at the end of a sentence to make it clear that it is the end of the sentence.

We were taught to add two in typing class in school.

carolinabeerguy

I have always used 2 spaces at the end of a sentence. That's the way that I was taught. It just doesn't feel right trying to use 1 space.