Hey. What's wrong with that? One space for words, two for sentences. Breaks things up a little nicer.

I was taught that in typing class. It was the standard of the time.

I don't do that for plain text - email and such. HTML rendering generally compresses white space to a single space unless you use a non breaking space.

The only things that I know will do this automatically is emacs and (La)TeX. Maybe some of the word processors, but I use those so infrequently that I don't pay attention.

Pretty standard in the legal industry. Drives me crazy when there's only one space after a period. I type my texts the same way I type a legal doc...two spaces after the period. Old habits die hard.

I find text written with two spaces between sentences to be far more readable.

That's why I do it. Courtesy for the reader.

> I find text written with two
> spaces between sentences to be
> far more readable.

🌟 Affirmed ✓

> That's why I do it. Courtesy
> for the reader.

And we are grateful. It's the little things.

Yeah, I was taught to use two spaces back in keyboarding class in the 90's. I did look it up in the AP Stylebook (just now) and it says to use one space.
I recall a bitchy screed on Slate a few months ago about people using two spaces. I guess I didn't realize that this is a thing that people actually care about.
I still prefer serif typefaces, though, so I guess I'm a bit of a fogey (at 36).

Two spaces after a period dates back to the days of moveable type printing when additional shims were put in place after periods to make the document easier to read.

Does every established tradition or practice have to be disparaged and upended these days; even the ones that actually make sense?

It's easier to text one space after a period in text messaging. Do we really want to define our society by a casual communications tool known for abbreviations and nearly universal word butchery?

Most computer software these days interpret two spaces as an order to insert an period and one space after the period. So, the decline of communications has begun.

No wonder we are warned when televisions shows have "language" in them. They might be incomprehensible to anyone under 30.

I'll bet he also thinks using Spellcheck is "proofreading."

DavidYontz just earned himself the nickname "David (two spaces) PUTZ"

This is as heated a topic as the Oxford comma in my circle of friends. But we're a bunch of former English majors, so...

Sorry, Seekers, but this one (like the hard-G GIF) is worth a fight to the death.

Big Mac.

I'll bet he also thinks using Spellcheck is "proofreading."

David Yontz is THE best copyeditor who has ever edited me, and I am wildly grateful to have him editing both my columns and books. He copyedited "Good Manners for Nice People Who Sometimes Say F*ck," and I've asked my publisher to have him edit my next book.

He has a sort of X-ray vision for seeing errors in both grammar and word logic, catches errors others would miss, and makes me a better writer. He's also not a fundamentalist about grammar -- we discuss whether something I want to do that's non-standard is too much of a mistake, where the tradeoff lies, etc.

Oh, and he's fun as hell.

Listen to his podcasts here:

http://www.creatorsbroadcast.com/shows/view/stop-grammar-time.html

Oh, and if you write a book, some copyeditor will lose their thumb cleaning up the thousands of extra spaces between sentences if you put two spaces in. Don't do it.

Many of today's most popular "word processing" "software programs" include a tremendously useful "Search & Replace" function, which automates routine tasks.

I was an '81 grad who went back to school in 2001. I was shocked when I was told to use only one space after a sentence. I distinctly remembered that two spaces were required. During my first semenster of typing I came as close to failing a class as I ever have and one reason was that i skipped that second space.

Then in college I was docked for adding that second space. Yes, the rule had been changed. How do you just change a rule? Where was the announcement? I read the paper every day. I never once saw an article or heard a discussion about the repeal of the space.

Never again can I be confident that I am writing correctly. The rules can change.

I am that old, and I'm not apologizing for the entire appropriate second space.

It's english Jen. The rules are always changing. And how something is written has only a vague relationship to how it is pronounced. How do you say bass? Well, it depends. Are you talking about a sound or a fish. Wind? Did you mean the way you walk (a winding path, to wind through the weeds) or the movement of air? So you have to take all of this advice with a grain of salt.

Learn a decent language. Learn to speak math. It is much less confusing.

Many of today's most popular "word processing" "software programs" include a tremendously useful "Search & Replace" function, which automates routine tasks.

If you are editing or copyediting an article, you can't just apply this as a blanket thing.

One space after a sentence is wrong. Two spaces after a sentence is correct. What's so hard about that?

> If you are editing or copyediting
> an article, you can't just apply
> this as a blanket thing.

If your editor wants to "blanket" you, you need a new publishing outlet.

This person thinks he's so smart period space space Well, he can kiss my old ass!

I'll use two spaces until it's illegal or I die. Legibility matters. I learned the correct way in typing class, several decades before Alex, when a mistake meant starting over with a new sheet of paper.

I appreciate the spaces. As others noted, it helps readability. I still punctuate my text messages, too. My children tell me it takes too much time. No matter.

I can assure you it's not going away in medical or legal documents anytime soon. It seems to be much more a $ issue that has driven the two-space usage out. I make more for using the double space because I'm paid on pages/lines produced. Conversely one hospital out of no less than 30 I have typed for had the strange requirement to use only one space after a period. Cheapskates. That's all it is. Two spaces make sense, looks better to everyone.

And don't get me started on the Oxford comma. I could impress you with some examples of where it changed a sentence's meaning so many times but I don't have a didactic memory. But trust me - it's still pertinent too.

"Big Mac."

All hail the supporters of Ogg Vorbis.

"Two spaces after a period dates back to the days of moveable type printing when additional shims were put in place after periods to make the document easier to read."

My understanding of the Linotype was that you couldn't have two shims next to each other. They'd cause a jam when the machine broke down the matrix to return the type to the magazine.

I have a blessed life, but not "so blessed that I actually give a shit how many spaces you put after a period" blessed. That's blessed.

And AR 25-50 wasn't my idea anyway.