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.)
I’m only 18, so for most of my life, I hadn’t even heard of the 2 space rule until I started editing my friends papers one of them insisted on doublespacing after periods. I thought him wierd and never did it myself.
Please, God, tell me it’s only one space after a period. I learned to type two, tied myself in knots switching to one with the advent of the computer age, and now if I have to go back to two I may just jump off a roof instead. 😐
I’m a PADSAPer.
Here's an easy way to do the find & replace in MS Word:
– Control + H at the same time
– In the find field, type a period and two spaces
– In the replace field, type a period with one space
…then click on "Replace All"
On a side note, my word verification is holyarpe
Does anyone know what an arpe is, and why it is holy?
If it’s not there, or the periods not there, it usually means the writer has trouble creating proper sentences.
~this almost sounds ridiculous to me. it’s like saying if hands aren’t at 10 and 2, the driver probably has trouble starting or driving a car.
I’m not sure one tap on the spacebar or two has anything to do with how well a person can write. Isn’t that the bottom line?
One space in word processors, two on a typewriter. Easy, eh?
My mom told me two and still tries to put in two when she proofreads my English essays. But I took a ruler to a good number of the books in our house, just to make it official, and every single one of them had just one space between sentences. So I write with a single space since I would like to see my stories in book-form someday and take pity on copyeditors. 🙂
couldn’t we have had a third choice?
It doesn’t matter as long as you are consistent.
I follow AP style: one. Two spaces is a waste of space.
Heh heh, wordver is revatio. Sounds like a Harry Potter spell: Revatio!
Some publishers want one, some want two spaces.
When I type my manuscript, I use two because I can do a universal find and replace of two spaces to one, but I’d have to put in two spaces one at a time if I only used one.
One. Enough said.
~jon
You can always tell the work of the older person who was taught correctly to use the typewriter — they double space.
Chicago says single space and I think that’s now the industry standard for copy editors.
I’m in my 60’s. In high school I was taught to use two. On the internet, I was taught to use one. I like it that way.
To “awesome”
I before E, except after W
I voted two. Unfortunately the correct answer is one for justified literary works. I pulled several just to get a look at what modern printing is doing. However, just for the hell of it, I pulled an 1873 first edition off my bookshelf which is also justified and it clearly has two spaces after each period in paragraph. Which, of course, is the way I write. Doesn’t matter that my publisher has a small routine they run that immediately drops them down to one space after line edits. Two is what I was taught and I will never be able to break that habit.
Yes, I have not been writing long, and imagine my surprise when checking the formating of a story with the proofing tools in Word Pro (Lotus fan here) and found that two spaces after a period are no longer necessary. Of course at first I figured there must be an error in the system, because I never got that memo for the change over.
I still find myself doing it. Go figure.
Thanks Mr. B for such a wonderfully informative Website. You are this newbies dream come true.
Oh, I’m so confused!!!
I learned to type on a typewriter ages ago (actually, my grandmother taught me when I was 8), so I’ve been typing using the two-space rule for over thirty years. It’s a hard habit to break. I’m also having to adjust myself on Twitter for those precious characters, though. Give me some time; I may get used to the idea, but I am NOT going back over my MS to delete extra spaces! =p
Because word processed copy is typesetting and not a typewriter (which had a rule that one should leave 2 spaces after punctuation), only one space is required. The main difference is word processed copy is typessetting.
One space!!!!
“Two spaces. I believe Word makes me do it, but it might also be the 8th grade typing teacher who would smack your hand with a ruler if you let your wrists touch the desk.”
Because she wanted everyone to develop carpal tunnel syndrome? Or is resting your wrists on the desk the culprit?
Just wondering.
I worked in public relations after college and it was drilled into me to use one space instead of two. Back in the mid 90s I read that almost all publishers expect just one space, so I’ve been doing it ever since. There’s no way I could go back. In fact, I typed this comment with just one space and I’m curious if everyone else did too!
I was taught two. But somehow I have been skewered for it ever since.
???
Guidance needed.
I prefer one (for consistency with the rest of the world), but when I first started writing, everything said “two spaces or you’ll never get an agent”, so I got in the habit and it’s now ingrained in my brain forever.
Two. Two. Two. Two. Two. Two. Two.
See? You can totally see the difference. The distance between two sentences should be greater than the distance between two words.
Two. Two. Two!
I’m pretty sure the two-space thing comes from the time of the typewriter. With word processing, one space is king!
Angela, I’m not sure what difference I am supposed to see.
Anon,
You can’t see the diff. in Angela’s comment because what Angela doesn’t realize is that in HTML all spaces are reduced to single spaces. There’s a workaround involving a special code called a nonbreaking space, but Angela didn’t use that code.
Regardless, see earlier comments by Don and by me (back on the first page of comments anbd by Roscoe James on this page. It can be helpful to pay attention to facts rather than myths and opinions, eh?
One space or two. Either way is fine, but pick one and MAKE IT CONSISTENT!
(Do you want to know if anal retentive is hyphenated?)
Hang on a second! One space? since when??? I learned to type on a computer, not a typewriter, and I was taught two spaces after the period, and one after a comma. It’s so ingrained I don’t even notice when I’m at the keyboard.
One of the first comments wrote editors will take out the additional space – do they really? Is it so much of a formatting issue that I should be concerned about my ms and the double space after each sentence?
Funny, I was just laboring over this issue myself. I was taught on a typewriter and so use two spaces, but an editor from an e-book publisher sent back my ms and it looked like she had deleted a space after every period.
“What’s this?” I said to my writing self. “One space? Really?”
So I am wondering what is standard protocal lately?
Chris
Two.
I had to vote for two spaces because I’m an old dog and can’t learn new tricks. But in my heart I know that one space is the way of the future.
Anon,
Pay attention. It has been the way of the future since EIGHTEEN NINETY-SIX.
Re: “Nice to see that a simple yes/no question about a triviality like this results in nearly 180 comments.”
There are so many difficult places for the human mind to go in a day – can’t I rest here…a space or two…before moving on to the next?
🙂
I haven’t thought about this in years! I’m sure you see it both ways. I was told it’s correct as long as it’s the same throughout the work.
I was taught to type with two spaces between each sentance on the eber trusty typewriter. When I took a computer class, they told me to type with just one space.(Funny because it was only a year later) So, if I were to type today it would be on a computer. One space… for me!
My computer savy husband tells me it’s because the space uses up memory that is not needed. (At least that’s how it was explained to him.) So, if typing on a computer you are using up more space/memory than needed if you use two spaces.
One. An Rickey Henderson was my first baseball card. That man stole my heart faster than he could steal a base. Swoon…
Yeah Rickey!
I am not voting on this, but will put my two cents in (since we have three idiot brothers on the news around here that think that they have the right to do so); I have always put one space after a period. Except! when I was learning the writing technique. Somewhere along the way, I read, probably in Writer’s Market, to put two spaces after periods in manuscripts. To me, it’s just two different things.
And so, it’s always been.
Oh, I had a “reminds me of…” story to go along with this. So, if you’ll excuse me:
On the first day of Journalism (ick-ick) class, we sat there at the large desks, in the seats we chose ourselves, with dark, clunky manual typewriters ready to be stroked to life. I was quite use to this sight, growing up using my mother’s ‘portable’ pink and gray Royal. I felt the ominous presence though, of 286 chip computers along the wall, with their 5″ disk drives and green monochrome monitors gaping at me (used for the Yearbook staff [Yes, our school actually designed our yearbook!]).
Eventually, a schoolmate sat down next me, and began looking around her typewriter. I thought this was odd, especially since I had seen her in Typing Class before. So I asked, “What are you looking for?”
She responded, completely sane-like, “I’m looking for the On Switch.”
hilarity ensued. (Thanks)
Two spaces. Not because It’s the Right Way, but simply because it’s easier on the eyes.
P.S. Word verifications are “clampler” and “untiols.”
My suggestion:
“Clampler” = one who clamples. Of course.
“Untiols” = a certain class of futuristic alcohols.
Lord help us. Moving on to adding the extra comma…no. No, no, NO! Lynne leaves shrieking and looking for tinfoil hat.
I was taught two, but once I started working for a publisher, I was taught one. The origin (or so my boss told me) was a cost-per-character, as each space was a lead figure and thus would be charged. Eliminate a space and you save a bunch of money. That doesn’t make total sense because at the same time, they used commas for everything! e.g., i.e., serial commas, and so much more!
I learned two spaces and that’s what I’m most comfortable with. I could unlearn it, but that would mean thinking about it with every sentence I write. When I write, I don’t want to think about things like one space or two, I want to think about the story.
Besides, it’s just a matter of one easy step in MSWord’s find and remove to get rid of them all.
Who cares? 😛 I don’t think it matters. So I didn’t vote since it wasn’t an option. But, fyi, I use one. Always have used one space. But it isn’t like I’m going to stare at someone’s writing with two spaces after a period and actually notice.
I voted for two spaces. I was taught the Cortez Peters typing methodology. It was effective and emphasized precision. TWO SPACES followed each sentence. Read, “Period, space, space.” Those familiar with with this methodology will remember the rhythmic chant. More recently I’ve discovered a trend for a single space after each sentence, I understood–for a time–that it was part of the informally written world of email and text messaging. I am interesting in learning if times have changed that much in the 20 years since I began to punch the keys along with a choir of fellow 3rd hour students mumbling along with a taped recording of Cortez Peters. And though I no longer hear his steady voice as I click away at the keyboard, I do fear hearing him turn over in his grave should I press the space bar just once after punctuating a sentence.
It’s two spaces after the period, one after a comma, for me. And I prefer my noodles to be called Romain, not ramen, thank you.
It seems that quite a few people who use two spaces KNOW that the two space rule is obsolete. So, did all you two-spacers-who-know-better still insist on voting for two spaces, knowing all the while that it’s wrong to do so? Talk about living in denial! Move into the 21st century, people. Acceptance is bliss – and one space looks lovely in a Word document. *grin*
I used to use double spaces after a period but then last September I heard they were frowned upon.
I tend to tinker with my previous chapters, even when I write the current one, and I am still coming across and editing double spaces to single spaces. :-/
I’m a reformed two-spacer, now a devoted one-spacer. It’s liberating, people! Make the change in your heart, and the keyboard will follow.
Who cares? Don’t the publishers have their own in-house rulings on this?
If you need to submit ‘the other way’ do a find and replace in Word. (Yip, it works for spaces.)
I, too, was taught the old fashioned way but I replace the double spaces with singles ones before printing as a token gesture towards the environment… Sad eh.