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Double spacing at the start of a sentence

edited February 2013 in Flamewars
So I recently found out this was a thing that people argue over... Some people were taught to type putting a double space at the start of a new sentence and others were taught just using a single space. The double space thing is supposedly a carry over from people using typewriters to mimic print styles that went out of fashion in the 50s.

I reckon I'm on the losing side as I still do it.

But on this forum my spaces are edited down to single spaces automatically. So you'd never know which side someone was on! Is there any reason the controversy is not as inane as I think it is?
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Comments

  • edited February 2013
    Ah my clever joke has been ruined by formatting!

    Seriously tho, I can't think of any reason to do this. Then again, I also can't think of any reason to add "ugh" at the end of that word in casual use either, so I'm probably not the go-to guy.
    Post edited by open_sketchbook on
  • edited February 2013
    I was taught to do this on an actual typewriter in high school. It was an electric typewriter, but still. Paper, ink.

    It's a force of habit now, so I still do it, but I sincerely couldn't care less if anyone else does nor if websites automatically remove the extraneous space (most do just by default, you actually have to ADD whitespace-preserving code to your HTML form handlers to keep it.)
    Post edited by muppet on
  • I don't do it and I find it somewhat annoying when quoting people who do. It makes no sense to me. The period already signifies the end of the previous sentence and by implication the start of a new one. Double spacing just seems unnecessary and I don't understand why people do it in the first place.
  • One space after a period except on shitty typewriters. Everyone else is wrong.
  • edited February 2013
    One space after a period except on shitty typewriters. Everyone else is wrong.
    100% correct.
    Post edited by Matt on
  • Huh. I always wondered why people did this. I always assumed it was intended to add whitespace, promoting readability among those with poor eyesight.
  • edited February 2013
    This is one of those who the fuck cares issues. Seriously. I mean, does it really matter if there are two spaces or one after a sentence.

    Edit: Ahhh wow, this fucking forum denies me my right to two space........... At least I have ellipses...

    Post edited by Cremlian on
  • Getting annoyed when quoting people who double space after periods has got to be the pettiest pet peeve I have ever heard of in my life. And that's saying something.
  • Getting annoyed when quoting people who double space after periods has got to be the pettiest pet peeve I have ever heard of in my life. And that's saying something.
    Oxford comma.

  • This is one of those who the fuck cares issues. Seriously. I mean, does it really matter if there are two spaces or one after a sentence.

    Edit: Ahhh wow, this fucking forum denies me my right to two space........... At least I have ellipses...
    Getting annoyed when quoting people who double space after periods has got to be the pettiest pet peeve I have ever heard of in my life. And that's saying something.
    Typography is serious. Just because you don't personally care about typography doesn't make it not important, and it doesn't mean it's ok to disrespect it or fuck it up once you know better.

    Imagine someone who doesn't care about driving never using their turn signal. They say "how the fuck cares?" they don't care about driving, they just do it to get to work and back.

    Well, you may not care about typography, but you are using it right now as you type. If you are going to engage in a practice, and you know better, you have no excuse not to fuck it up when the results of your work will be inflicted on others.

    Typography is one of those things that matters a fuckton, but is completely invisible to people who don't know about it.
  • edited February 2013
    Getting annoyed when quoting people who double space after periods has got to be the pettiest pet peeve I have ever heard of in my life. And that's saying something.
    It would annoy me. If I am writing a story and pull a quote from somewhere, and they doublespace, I'm going to have to sit there and correct it. Otherwise, my editor will and now he'll be pissed off. There is a reason we have rules.

    Post edited by Matt on
  • edited February 2013
    Except, a single or double space after a period is not going to cause any issues. I can understand other issues in typography being important but this one causes no confusion, it exists due to old tech and most likely will die out overtime. As people with no experience on a type writer won't have this issue. Personally I learned initially to type on a typewriter. Though you'd never know I double space after a period because this forum auto-corrects that. Which of course keeps me using double spaces :-p

    Funny part is I've never even heard of this issue before this, I assumed everyone was double spacing after sentences. Even in this forum. Until I realized just now that it was auto-correcting that.
    Post edited by Cremlian on
  • I just hate it when bad drivers say, "how the fuck cares."

    It does appear that on some cars directionals are an optional feature.
  • edited February 2013
    "This readability argument is debatable. Typographers can point to no studies or any other evidence proving that single spaces improve readability. When you press them on it, they tend to cite their aesthetic sensibilities. As Jury says, "It's so bloody ugly.""

    That article kinda shoots the turn signal argument down. it's aesthetics :-p So it's more about washing your car then it is using your turn signal...

    Also the article points out some English teachers taught two spaces. which would explain why I've never had an issue before.
    Post edited by Cremlian on
  • edited February 2013
    Edit: Ahhh wow, this fucking forum denies me my right to two space........... At least I have ellipses...
    I noticed that on a post I'd made earlier and I was like "Holy shit! I've been edited!" :p

    I was taught the single space was wrong in school in the late nineties. They should have made us aware of the controversy and let us make our own minds up rather than drilling it into us.


    Edit: This wasn't in an english class. We learnt this in IT!
    Post edited by Totally Guy on
  • TEACH THE CONTROVERSY!
  • Double space was created back when you charged by the page.
  • The real answer is that the data input (sentences, words, etc...) should independent of the display of said information. I double-space primarily out of habit and muscle memory, but it's moot in, say, HTML, where whitespace is compressed.
  • I got my good, earnest belly laugh for the week out of the comparison between two spaces after a period, which is utterly harmless, with not using your traffic signal, which can result in fatal car collisions.

    Thank you, Scott. :-)
  • Getting annoyed when quoting people who double space after periods has got to be the pettiest pet peeve I have ever heard of in my life. And that's saying something.
    It would annoy me. If I am writing a story and pull a quote from somewhere, and they doublespace, I'm going to have to sit there and correct it. Otherwise, my editor will and now he'll be pissed off. There is a reason we have rules.

    You, your editor, and a handful of kerning geeks will be the ONLY ones to notice the extra spaces after a period unless you're publishing in a monospaced font.
  • edited February 2013
    Personally I'd rather debate how everyone not using a inverted Mouse is wrong in FPS's and flying games.
    Post edited by Cremlian on
  • Personally I'd rather debate how everyone not using a inverted Mouse is wrong in FPS's and flying games.
    There's reasonable justification for that prescription.

  • I'm an inverter. Death to the un-inverted hordes!!
  • If you want to selectively quote that article, I can do so as well.

    "Every modern typographer agrees on the one-space rule. It's one of the canonical rules of the profession, in the same way that waiters know that the salad fork goes to the left of the dinner fork and fashion designers know to put men's shirt buttons on the right and women's on the left. Every major style guide—including the Modern Language Association Style Manual and the Chicago Manual of Style—prescribes a single space after a period."
  • And modern typographers are the only ones who care.

    I care about things that actually have an effect on readability and don't just tweak a highly specialized expert's eye.

    This sort of obsessive goal displacement seems on par with the fashion show industry that has become about everything BUT what people actually wear.

    If an author/editor doesn't re-quote (or whatever the industry specific term is) a block of dialog when a new paragraph starts, that bugs the shit out of me, but two spaces after a period is not going to hamper my absorption of the material.
  • Maybe journalists shouldn't be so lazy as to copy and paste? Write some new material...
  • edited February 2013
    Regardless of whether or not this particular typographical standard has an effect on readability is not the point.

    The point is if that you are the kind of person who will refuse to follow the standard and spit in the face of a respectable and important art/science as typography shows what kind of person you are. If you didn't know you were wrong you should be happy that you have become enlightened, and should take the opportunity to improve yourself by following the rule.

    To refuse to follow the standard, now that you can no longer claim ignorance, is the height of arrogance. You are knowingly and intentionally making your writing worse on purpose. Studies or not, you are not a typographer. You do not know better than "every modern typographer". To try to act like you do, or refuse to follow because you don't like it, is an anti-intellectual attitude. Perhaps the most reprehensible of attitudes.
    Post edited by Apreche on
  • edited February 2013
    lolz.
    Post edited by Cremlian on
  • Everyone who insists on double spacing between sentences should also be forced to only use Comic Sans as their font.
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