First off, congratulations to my childhood hero Rickey Henderson for being elected into the baseball Hall of Fame!! Not only was Rickey an incredible hitter and base stealer, he also said things like “Rickey don’t like it when Rickey can’t find Rickey’s limo” (no seriously, that’s an actual quote), making him spectacularly entertaining off the field as well. Rickey might just be the first baseball player ever to give his entire acceptance speech in the third person.
Now then.
I’d like to issue a parental advisory right now. Because of the impassioned feelings on both sides of this issue, this debate could get ugly.
Let’s get this one settled once and for all.
(Deep breath)
One space or two after a period?
Bracing….
(Thanks to lotusgirl for the idea.)
Brad Green says
I’m going to be experimental and edgy and use three.
Sarah says
There’s a controversy about this?
Really?
I use two spaces, and yes, I did learn on a typewriter. I was fine with yesterday’s post- no angst there- but changing to one space?
Good grief.
How long did it take those of you who switched to the dark side to get used to it? Seems like you’d be backspacing at the end of every sentence for a while…
Colleen says
Are you kidding me!!?? Two spaces! Two years of high school typing classes (yes, TYPING…I’m just that old) cannot be wrong.
Perhaps a more scientific survey would be to ask the person’s age as well. I’m betting that all of us 35 years and older would be voting for two spaces.
Melospiza says
After having had to return to a few manuscripts and weed out every single double space, I am now a one-space typer.
Ink says
You’ve all convinced me. I just switched to single space and started the ol’ Find and Replace dance on all my manuscripts. It’s great to have a community of anal reten… charming and helpful writers.
🙂
My best, as always,
Bryan Russell
Julia Weston says
I can’t vote. My mother and high-school English and typing teachers ingrained in me the two-space rule. It’s as good as coded in my DNA. But just before I voted I flipped open my dusty AP style guide. ONE SPACE!!!
My finger won’t click. I am shaken to the core.
Nathan Bransford says
Don’t worry Steve, we will fight the serial comma battle another day.
Steve says
When I was copyediting at S&S Children's, the first thing we did with any copy–from cover copy to front matter to the manuscript itself–was find and replace double spaces with singles. Since some writers even enjoy throwing in the occasional triple or quadruple space–Lord knows why–it usually took a few F&R passes through to get everything nice and tidy.
Ashley says
Wow. I’m totally confused now.
I’m only 23, and I had a typing class in high school where we were taught to use two spaces! And that is exactly what I did all through college and that is what I continue to do.
Now I read all these comments from people saying that they are old and only use two spaces because that’s how they were taught when using a typewriter???
Nathan, now I feel as if my whole word is off balance!
Anonymous says
Now I am wondering if I was the only person who grew up with computers that learned 2 spaces was correct. The again, I notice windows tends to view one space as correct will linux supports two.
-Jon
Ashley says
Whoops. That should read my whole “world” not “word”. Sorry.
Cam says
Follow the AP-style rule of ONE space after a period (and all punctuation marks for that matter). To whom do you answer, your typing teacher (who’s not with the times if they’re still teaching 2 spaces), or an editor, who has to search-and-replace every two-space entry throughout an MS with a single space? That’s the dilemma of many online and print editors who are driven crazy by story submissions with two spaces that then have to be edited to fit the text into a tight space. Be safe. AP style is always a good bet.
Lee says
Just be reading the comments, you’ll figure out just where we all fall, age-wise.
Older ones, like me, will say two: because in the Gregg Typewriter curriculum, it said 2.
However, younger folks who wouldn’t know to listen for that little bell at the end of a line, will say one.
Thanks Nathan for making me feel so old.
Michelle (MG) Braden says
I can't stop double spacing at the end of a sentence. It's ingrained into me. I type 72 wpm and by the time I realise that I'm supposed to have only used one space I'm long gone. LOL So, now, I just type the ms that way and fix it with the find & replace. Most of the epubs I have worked with want only one space.
As for the comma question. I agree! I always put that last comma in a list, i.e. periods, commas, and question marks.
Also, for numbers being written out, I've been told (who knows when – maybe typing class? LOL) that single and double digits are written out, but triple and above the actual number is used.
Bryn Greenwood says
What if I’m entirely ambivalent and I just wish somebody with some authority would make up his effing mind and issue a proclamation. Maybe the Pope, the Dalai Lama, and Stephen King could get together and make a ruling on this?
Nancy Coffelt says
For all you two-space holdouts –
what about the trees? How many trees have given their very lives for your two-space habit? How many more need to die?
As a proudly modern one-spacer, I can sit smugly on my greenie laurels while kicking back on my hemp fabric upholstered couch, sipping my organic soy chai latte and contemplating my contribution to saving the planet.
Ashley says
Okay. I don’t think I can type another sentence of my WIP without hearing which is correct. Call me naive but I had NO idea that editors got irritated by two spaces.
Robert A Meacham says
I agree with CAM. This gives me great relief in the noggin, considering that when I accidentally use two spaces my computer sticks its tongue out at me and I begin hearing voices.
Leslie says
One space because verily, that is the way of the world. I don’t like it because I learned the 2-space way, but there you go!
Anonymous says
It is one space if your manuscript is too long and two if it is too short. Is that too hard to figure out? It’s like queries, if you suck at them get someone else to write it if you’re good write it yourself.
Whirlochre says
As with any convention, preference and usage will depend on the wishes of those penned up in the convent, and I’m guessing we’re seeing a shift from (the old standard) 2 to (the likely new standard) 1, with the speed of change likely being dependent on the desire of the 2s (like me) to drag their habitual heels.
In the end, I can’t think this matters very much at all. But who knows — it may be the start of a global conflict.
Stina Rose says
I was so excited in college when I learned that I only had to use one space…I will never go back!
dernjg says
I was taught to write for newspapers, where space is at a premium. So it’s always one space for me.
Jean says
Let’s settle this once and for all and consult the gods of style. APA:https://www.apastyle.org/faqs.html#14
And in case you don’t want to follow the link, here’s what the gods say:
“Unlike manual typewriters, word-processing software uses fonts that result in proportional spacing, so additional spacing around periods is no longer necessary. Uniform spacing around punctuation also saves a step in preparing word-processing files for electronic editing. As a publisher, APA does not return manuscripts on the basis of the spacing around punctuation.”
Jean
Anonymous says
Nancy Coffelt said… what about the trees.
Um… submissions are electronic for the most part.
dan radke says
I’m a recent one-space convert. And I’ve never looked back.
Get with the times you archaic two-spacers.
Bill Womack says
The double-spacers remind me of a Brit who got pulled over in Kansas for driving on the wrong side of the road. “But officer, I was taught to drive this way!”
Buck up. Technology changed, and so did the rules. Switch to one space now, or risk causing a horrendous pile-up. Lives will be lost, people!
Fortunately, if you’ve got a two-space MS, it ought not to be too tough to simply find and replace all instances of doubles with singles, as was said earlier.
Brian Jay Jones says
Two spaces. Because it looks better. I also put two spaces after each period in an ellipses, just to be annoying.
Ink says
And even though I just switched (20 mins ago) to single spacing, I’ve found the whole “save the trees” thing inaccurate, since the switch didn’t change the page count of a very long manuscript (sadly…), though that manuscript was chaptered (but then won’t almost every manuscript be chaptered or broken up in some way?)
Now, of course, we get to see if I can actually remember to type only one space after a period… or maybe I’ll just finish every sentence with ellipses…
My best, as always,
Bryan
Jenn Johansson says
Just for information’s sake, I took my finished ms that I am currently editing which was all done with two spaces after the period and performed a find and replace with one space. It took all of five seconds and came back with 4,871 replacements confirmed. I voted for two, but according to Word, I’m flexible. 🙂
Jael says
One.
Professor Tarr says
Igrewupinanagewhentwospaceswasthenorm. Itcertainlyseemstoaddsomewhitespacetomyramblings. Iwillprobablystickwithit. Ineverthoughtitwasanactualcontroversy,though. I sawitasmoreofacuriosity. PerhapsIhaveotherissuesI'mnotawareof.
Sorry. You know it was so ingrained upon me as a youth to have two spaces that when I interview animators over on my Animated Lives! site
(https://animationblock.typepad.com/editorial/animated_lives/), I painstakingly – and quite painfully go through each line of html adding in the to get the requisite comfort level.
I honestly would be sooo relieved to find that I could abandon the typewriter caprices of my youth and mature into a nice old one-space-after-a-period gent. Seriously. It is a habit. Still. (Obviously!) But it is one I could gleefully teach myself to break.
The Anti-Wife says
Two. That’s what they taught in typing class back when the machines were manual and it is forever ingrained in my head.
Terra Dawn says
I would like to say that I am 25, was taught in a computer class, and was taught two spaces. I was taught two spaces all the way through high school and the beginning of college up until 2002. After that, teachers just didn’t seem to care anymore. I’ve tried to change my “two-space” habit, but it’s “two” ingrained. (Can’t pass up a really terrible joke.)
Just_Me says
We are not using typewriters.
No one is getting paid by the line.
Stop padding your page and keep writing. The obsession with two spaces can’t be healthy.
L.C.McCabe says
Nathan,
I was convinced on this very subject by the loquacious Anne Mini.
Standard format *requires* two spaces after periods.
It allows for more space to do hand edits and for the trained eye, it “looks better.”
She expounded on this very topic over a year ago and one of her posts can be found here:
https://www.annemini.com/?p=1719
There is no one I know that has more passion about this topic than Anne Mini.
In deference to her profoundly superior knowledge of this topic, I continue to create two spaces after each period as my fingers were taught years ago in typing class. (Yes, I’m that old.)
Linda
spinregina says
As a copy editor, I have never heard of two spaces being allowed. We search and replace two spaces with one, when we get a script submitted by someone who does that.
Megan says
I’m 25 and was taught two spaces (yes, by my mother, who learned on a typewriter). I also like the look of two spaces better. If someone who will potentially give me money for my writing wants me to change it to one, then a little find/change and I’m set.
I think the best comments are the ones that said they didn’t even realize it was an issue until the read it in the blogging world. If it’s only an issue in the blogging world, I’m not going to get too worked up about it.
Kimberly Derting says
As a Two-Spacer, my editor asked me to go through a replace them all with one space during editing. Sure. Simple. Easy enough.
Yet, as I’m working on Book Two, I find myself *stubbornly* holding out and using two spaces.
Trust me, save yourself the headache! ONE. SPACE.
L.C.McCabe says
I looked at Anne Mini’s blog again and found a more current post that deals with this very controversy and expounds on the difference between manuscripts and books on one versus two spaces after periods.
Check it out:
https://www.annemini.com/?p=1780
Knows-His-Pen says
After more than twenty years as an editor, I found it quite an adjustment to use one space between sentences instead of two. But the logic is irrefutable, as clindsay and others point out here, especially with digital fonts. (Actually, to be correct, and old-fashioned, digital typefaces! A font is a variation on a typeface–or used to be considered as such.)
Speaking of which, where is the outcry over the recent reversion to the truly old-fashioned practice of using ordinals with dates (March 15th) rather than the cleaner, more eye-appealing cardinal (March 15), which was the standard until Microsoft quietly added its ordinal marker as a default autocorrection. That little “th” is made even more irritating because it is programmed to appear as a dainty little superscript, and it looks silly in most printed copy. But the only way to remove it, for most of us, is to go into the Tools section of Word and change it.
Hey, maybe folks like it. So, Nathan, how about another poll on the dainty li’l ordinal that’s creeping into the language?
jackykendricks says
Being lysdexic (dyslexic for those who don’t get the joke), I find I can’t distinguished between a (,) and a (.) without that little bit of extra space. Especially in novels with tiny fonts. Or on a computer screen. Maybe more so on the screen than in print.
In either case, Double space for the win!
Megan says
On a whim, I just did a find/change on my 260 page work in progress. 8479 instances of double spacing were changed, reducing my 260 page document to 258 pages. A second sweep caught another 13 but didn’t change the page count (zero on the third). How many trees did I save there?
Adaora A. says
I say one. I find myself to be extremely annoyed when looking at the glaring hole that (in my mind), is too big and unnecessary.
Congrats to your baseball hero. To be honest, I’ve never watched a game of baseball (longer then 10 minutes in my life). It’s all about football (the proper original, where you use your feet), and basketball.
D.A.A. Price (aka Elgin) says
All fashion trends aside, why would anyone spend the time to add all those extra spaces, when the first thing the typesetter does when they receive a manuscript is to search through the text and strip them all back out? Double spaces after periods is pointless, and a much easier habit to break than cigarettes or heroin.
Mim says
I used to do two, until I started writing online. Then I was quickly told to change to one. After a few months of retraining myself, I use just one. And I couldn’t go back and forth depending on what I’m writing. Let’s stick to one!
Lapillus says
I was taught two in college and have to use two for my work, so two just comes naturally now. So much so that I’ve never even considered what my manuscript should have (???).
Tia Nevitt says
If you use two spaces, they’re easy enough to delete before submitting. Just do a search and replace. Enter a period and two spaces in the “find” portion, and a period and one space in the “replace” portion. Execute the search. Presto.
I was a two-space girl until a friend of mine told me that today’s modern fonts now includes enough room so that the additional space after the period isn’t necessary. So after 20 years of typing with two spaces, I have trained myself to using one space. It really wasn’t that hard.
Sandy says
Ugh. It looks like one-space is winning. I guess I begrudgingly agree that two-spaces is outdated, but it’s So Freaking Hard to quit! I’ve had to delete every double space after my punctuation in this post.
I guess this can kind of be a late New Year’s Resolution.
Aimless Writer says
Rule? Two spaces. However Microsoft word automatically spaces after a period.