OK, I give up. I learned to type on an old manual typewriter that was terribly obsolete at the time. And what I learned then, I've used since, even though I've been typing on computers, well, ever since Hector was a pup. For the last couple of years, I've been engaged in a running debate with my kids, who think it's just unconscionable that I put two spaces after every sentence. I don't really argue back, but I figured I'm too set in my ways to change. Well, after reading Slate today, I've decided to give it a try. Starting today, I'm converting to one space.
At least, in theory. I tried in my first post today, and I'm finding it real rough going. Thus this item: I don't know whether I have any readers who even notice such things, but even if you never noticed that I've been a two-spacer, I suspect you will notice if I'm inconsistent. I suspect I will be. I've had to go back and fix about every other sentence in this post, and I'm never going to get more aware of it than I am in this item. So I think I'm going to have somewhat uglier prose, at least for a while. I apologize in advance.
I'm really not sure that I can actually manage to change, but I'll give it a few days, maybe a week, and see how it goes. There's always the backup plan of dispensing with multiple sentences in a paragraph altogether, after all -- I did have one whopper yesterday that clocked in at a scary 84 words, and that one didn't even have a parenthetical. Anyway, feel free to complain in comments.
Friday, January 14, 2011
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I agree! I'm probably quite a bit younger than you Jonathan, yet I've always learned that one ought to have two spaces at the end of a sentence. I read the Slate piece yesterday and thought that maybe I ought to correct myself as well but you make a good point here: how many people actually notice the extra (or lack of) space?
ReplyDeleteIn HTML, a space is the same as 2 spaces is the same as 6 spaces. I put six spaces after that period.
ReplyDeleteYou could be using a tool which inserts so called "non-breaking space"s when you type normal ones, but I doubt it. Most likely no one has or will notice, because there's nothing to notice.
Good point re: Gordon. However, if you read the Manjoo piece, people like us seem to be committing atrocities or something...
ReplyDeleteIf worst comes to worst, you can always run find-and-replace on your completed post to turn '. ' into '. '. That will at least ensure consistency.
ReplyDeleteAs a marketing professional, I noticed some of my young writers using only one space and it made me NUTS. So I decided to look it up and found out - much to my horror - that I was wrong. And apparently have been for a long time. I switched that day and Jonathan - I think we're about the same age - it only took me about a day to get used to it. Now it feels "weird" to type two and I notice when some of my, ahem, "older" writers use two. It drives me crazy!
ReplyDeleteYou'll get it. It's easier than you think, I promise.
Hm. I read Manjoo's piece and I think I'll stick to double-spacing. Why? Because there's simply no good reason to switch. True, style guides tend to recommend single-spacing, but those recommendations are based on the argument that single-spacing makes text more readable. That's an argument that has no basis in research (see Wikipedia).
ReplyDeleteAesthetically, two spaces makes sense to me because you want a pause in between sentences to be much more significant than a pause between words. In fact, there is usually no audible pause in between words; the spacing between words is only necessary because otherwise we wouldn't be able to tell whenonewordendsandthenextbegins. On the other hand, a little extra breathing room in between sentences signals to the reader to pause (audibly) before continuing on to the next discrete thought.
I learned to type two spaces after sentences, and since that's now what my fingers want to do and I don't buy that anyone can tell any difference, I'll continue with two, thanks.
ReplyDeletePlus, I agree with Andrew above.
I switched to single space when I started using a word processor with proportional typefaces in printouts (1984?). I remember suffering, vaguely, now that people mention it.
ReplyDeleteIn HTML, as Gordan pointed out, multiple spaces get rendered as a single space (if you don't work really hard to ensure otherwise), so there's no point in your switching. (The objection to doublespaceing sentences is only to how output is rendered given certain typefaces.)
Andrew, I don't see how your argument is aesthetic: you argue for a function (signaling an audible pause) which is tendentious at best (I need a signal for an audible pause when *reading silently*?! as most prose is read?!). I suppose if you get past the tendentiousness, there could be aesthetic appeal in form following that function.
Howeer, typeface designers design (today) with a thought toward single space after sentences. So, arguably, you violate their aesthetic intent when you render two spaces. Whether that result is, itself, asethetically pleasing is, of course, subject to a number of factors, but I'm generally skeptical.
With 7 comments (now 8!) in a little over an hour, I think there's another implication....you need to start A Plain Blog About Typing!
ReplyDeleteincidentally, I want to give a big eff you to proportional type. I actually miss block spacing!
ReplyDeleteBefore you make a final decision please see:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.manifestdensity.net/2011/01/14/everyone-has-a-right-to-their-beliefs/
Matt J is right - a new way to get page views without mentioning the Sage of Wasilla.
ReplyDeleteHave tried to post a comment here four or five times; it keeps appearing and then disappearing. So, just running a little test here. Maybe I'm using the wrong number of spaces after periods or something.
ReplyDeleteIn this era when most traditional authorities are in retreat, I suppose there's something inspiring -- or at least poignant -- in the immense faith that people seem to have in the authority of their high-school typing teachers. They can read The Atlantic and The New Yorker, two of America's longest-lived and most honored magazines, and see every period followed by one space. They can read The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Times of London, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and The Christian Science Monitor -- the English-speaking world's leading newspapers -- and see every period followed by one space. They can read any professional journal published in any field and see one space. They can read any book published by a major American or British publisher (as well as most from minor publishers) -- whether Dickens or Gone with the Wind or the latest from Tom Clancy or Dan Brown -- and see just the one space after periods. Nowadays, they can even see the one-space rule in use on virtually every professionally produced website, and (since HTML automatically corrects, as noted above) even most amateur sites. They can have the standard model staring them right in the face, from a zillion sources of unimpeachable authority, and then they go to type something and what do they do? Put in two spaces.
ReplyDeleteWhy? Because a high-school teacher once told them to. And not only will they give that as the reason, they'll insist that it must therefore be right, despite the manifest practice of the entire writing and publishing industry top to bottom.
People believe what they're taught (or what they think they remember being taught) over the evidence of their own eyes. Am I wrong in thinking that this maybe explains quite a bit about the world?
All right, that worked, so one more try. In an era when most traditional authorities are in retreat, I suppose there's something inspiring -- or at least poignant -- about the immense amount of faith people seem to have in their high-school typing teachers. They can read The Atlantic and The New Yorker, two of America's longest-lived and most honored magazines; or the English-speaking world's leading newspapers, like the New York Times, Washington Post, Times of London, Financial Times, Christian Science Monitor, etc.; or any professional journal in any field; or the output of the leading book publishers, ranging from classics like Dickens and Austen to the latest Pulitzer-winners to any Dan Brown or Tom Clancy potboiler. In every case, they'll see periods followed by one space, not two. They'll even see this nowadays on virtually every professionally produced website (and most amateur sites, since, as noted above, HTML automatically corrects).
ReplyDeleteBut with all this manifest evidence staring them right in the face, with a practice of long standing unambiguously in use throughout the entire writing and publishing industry, they go to type something of their own, and what do they do? Put in two spaces -- and then insist that it's right based on the authority of some high-school teacher. Am I wrong to wonder whether this sort of reliance on folklore and blind faith actually explains a lot about the state of the world?
I faced this issue a few years ago. I mostly use Microsoft Word, so I set up an auto-correct entry to replace ". " with ". " Eventually I taught myself to use one space. It wasn't easy, but it was easier than unlearning WordStar keyboard shortcuts.
ReplyDeleteMy first mentor was fanatical about formatting. He insisted that we do all of our word processing with the formatting visible (the paragraph symbol in Word) in order to minimize the amount of time he spent on revising our work (the style required by the journals, as Manjoo indicated, we were submitting to specified one space). It helped me break the habit and now it drives me batty to read word and pdf docs with double spaces, HTML not so much.
ReplyDeleteMy undergrads are still stuck in the proverbial stone age and everyone of them double or even triple spaces after sentences.
I saw the same article, and was similarly convinced, and tried to make the change. I gave up before I'd written two pages. I'm set in my ways, I think it's easier to read with two spaces, and dammit, I'm not going to change.
ReplyDeleteAnd they should bring back 8-tracks too!