Why using two spaces hurts your writing
- 1. It makes your writing look dated. Word processing has been around for a long time and we should update our writing to reflect current tools. The wonderful blog The Cult of Pedagogy explains this well in an article entitled, Nothing Says Over 40 Than Two Spaces after a Period! ...
- 2. Nearly all style guides agree that one space is correct.
Why you should never add two spaces after a period?
Why You Should Never, Ever Use Two Spaces Between Sentences. By Nicholas Jackson. ... Because we've all switched to modern fonts, adding two spaces after a period no longer enhances readability ...
Should you add one or two spaces after a period?
Leave one space after a period or other concluding punctuation mark, unless your instructor prefers two spaces. Whichever spacing you choose, be sure to use it consistently throughout your paper. See the MLA’s formatting guidelines for more information. How many spaces after a full stop Oxford? Two spaces after each full stop. Every time. Easy.
Are you supposed to put two spaces after a period?
Very few style guides advise using two spaces after a period. The APA, Chicago Manual of Style, AP and US Government Printing Office Style Manual all recommend a single space between sentences. The contemporary benefits of using it are few, aside from taking up more space on a page.
Should you ever put a space before a period?
There are even people who -- gasp -- put a space before "low" punctuation like periods and commas. While some of this comes across as sloppy Francophilia, there are people who opt for the space as a form of sentence cushioning, a way to decrease the (self-perceived) force behind their statements.
Why do we need double space?
Once considered an advanced form of technology themselves, older typewriters were known to produce uneven or unpredictable line spacing. A double space between the end of one sentence and the beginning of another helped to create some uniformity on the page, and made typed pages easier to read.
Why do we need double space in sentences?
Although there has been plenty of back-and-forth on the topic, a recent study may have concluded why many people still prefer seeing a double space between sentences: that extra space can help you read faster. While it may only cut down on reading time by a few seconds, some people can find that time invaluable.
How many spaces are there between the end of a sentence and the beginning of another?
These days, depending on what you’re reading, you can find either one or two spaces between the end of one sentence and the beginning of another.
Is single space correct?
According to the AP Stylebook, single-spacing is correct. The same goes for the Chicago Manual of Style. However, the Modern Language Association Style Center offers different advice, and suggests that writers use a single space after a period unless they have been explicitly told otherwise.
Is it better to give space bar a single tap?
Since either way can be considered correct, depending on the audience you’re writing for, the right answer seems to be to err on the side of caution and give that space bar a single tap. Not only is it the more widely acceptable method, it saves space (no pun intended) which can be especially important when working with limited character use—we’re looking at you, Twitter!
Why do you need two spaces after a period?
The extra space was needed to delineate the beginning of a new sentence because the spacing between words was uneven on a typewriter.
How many spaces after a period in APA?
The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) was the only style guide that overtly recommended two spaces after a period, and even that long-time holdout for two spaces changed its guideline to one space in its 2019 update. The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (MLA) waffles.
Why do typewriters use extra space after punctuation?
Because there is so much extra spacing in the typewritten monospace font, writers using typewriters needed the extra space after punctuation to indicate a full stop, such as a period, question mark, or exclamation point.
What is monospaced typesetting?
Typewriters gave every character the same space on the screen. This is called monospaced typesetting.
How to remove extra space in Word?
Use the "Find and Replace" option in your word processor (Control + F on most systems) to remove the extra space. In more recent versions of Word, look for the Replace in the Home ribbon at the top of the screen.
When did Microsoft change to one space?
Additionally, the American Psychological Association’s Publication Manual, after decades of recommending two spaces changed their recommendation to one space in its most recent update in October, 2019.
Is it correct to have two spaces after a period?
UPDATE: As of April 24, 2020, Microsoft has settled the great space debate, and sided with everyone who believes one space after a period is correct, not two. The software giant has started to update Microsoft Word to highlight two spaces after a period as an error, and to offer a correction to one space. Microsoft recently started testing this change with the desktop version of Word, offering suggestions through the Editor capabilities of the app.
Why is one space better than two?
But I actually think aesthetics are the best argument in favor of one space over two. One space is simpler, cleaner, and more visually pleasing. (It also requires less work, which isn’t nothing.) A page of text with two spaces between every sentence looks riddled with holes; a page of text with an ordinary space looks just as it should.
What is 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.
Why is there extra space in a monospaced typewriter?
Hence the adoption of the two-space rule—on a typewriter, an extra space after a sentence makes text easier to read.
How many spaces are there in a style guide?
Every major style guide—including the Modern Language Association Style Manual and the Chicago Manual of Style —prescribes a single space after a period. (The Publications Manual of the American Psychological Association, used widely in the social sciences, allows for two spaces in draft manuscripts but recommends one space in published work.)
How many spaces did typeetters use?
Hundreds of years ago, some typesetters would end sentences with a double space, others would use a single space, and a few renegades would use three or four spaces. Inconsistency reigned in all facets of written communication; there were few conventions regarding spelling, punctuation, character design, and ways to add emphasis to type.
When did monospaced fonts go out?
Here’s the thing, though: Monospaced fonts went out in the 1970s. First electric typewriters and then computers began to offer people ways to create text using proportional fonts. Today nearly every font on your PC is proportional. ( Courier is the one major exception.)
What does "space signals a pause" mean?
It’s a pure sign of amateur typography.” “A space signals a pause,” says David Jury, the author of About Face: Reviving The Rules of Typography. “If you get a really big pause—a big hole—in the middle of a line, the reader pauses. And you don’t want people to pause all the time. You want the text to flow.”.
Why are double spaces bad?
Typography scholars know the reason double spaces became standard is that typewriters use only fixed-width (or monospaced) fonts, so having two spaces between sentences made it easier to distinguish the sentences in text where an “i” takes up the same amount of space as “w.”
How fast can you read with two spaces?
Of course, there are a few hitches to this groundbreaking pronouncement, namely, that it’s based on a single study of 60 college students, where only the students who use double spaces themselves read text faster (a whopping 3% faster!) in a fixed-width font with two spaces instead of one after periods. (Basically, 100 minutes reading would become 97 minutes if the text used two spaces.)
How fast do two spacers read?
So the researchers did not appear to adjust their analysis to account for a priori preferences among their participants: one-spacers read the text almost equally as fast in both conditions, but two-spacers read slightly faster with two spaces. Total reading time for those natural two-spacers was 260 milliseconds (yes, milliseconds) with one space and 253 milliseconds with two spaces (a 2.7% difference).
Does spacing after a period affect reading speed?
Next, let’s consider what the researchers found: “Although the type of spacing following punctuation marks did not seem to have an effect on those individuals who type with one space after a period, those who type with two spaces after a period had greater reading speed when paragraphs were presented in the same way in which they type: with two spaces following periods and one space following commas.” (They also tested spacing with commas and found, unsurprisingly, that no one like two spaces after a comma. I don’t think we needed a study to tell us that.)
Can you have two spaces in a research paper?
Yes, yes, you would. The study doesn’t say whether the participants were from similar majors or a wide variety of majors, but differences in fields of study—especially since professors in certain fields (especially the sciences) often require two spaces in research papers—may also cause confounding.
Do one spacers read faster than two spacers?
So the researchers did not appear to adjust their analysis to account for a priori preferences among their participants: one-spacers read the text almost equally as fast in both conditions, but two-spacers read slightly faster with two spaces.
Is it irresponsible to draw broad conclusions from a single study?
Of course, even if this study were flawless (no study is), it’s irresponsible to draw broad conclusions from a single study’s findings. Science requires replication and a gradual accumulation of evidence, ideally pointing toward a consensus over time.
How many spaces after a period?
The rule is not "two spaces after a period;" it's "two spaces at the end of a sentence." You will notice that the preceding sentence does not end with a period -- nor does this one!
Why are there two spaces in a sentence?
Since the mechanical context that led to the double-spaces (the typewriter) is pretty much gone, the practice of double-spaces should be gone, too.
How many spaces are there in Chicago style?
I use The Chicago Manual of Style. I believe most style guides call for one space. I grew up using two spaces, but thanks to Microsoft Word's grammar and style checking, it automatically corrects when I mess up and try to put in two spaces.
Why do I quit writing after a period?
In the end, if you are being held up by the number of spaces after a period, then I'd just quit writing, because you'll never get past that first sentence.
What is 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.
When text is displayed as HTML, what happens to the extra spaces?
When your text is displayed as an HTML document (web pages, etc.), any extra spaces are automatically collapsed into one space, even if you are using a monospace font.
Do you use two spaces after a period?
Thus, the debate: those of us who grew up with typewriters were taught "always use two spaces after a period," while younger folks who grew up with word processors were taught (frequently by Microsoft's grammar checker) to use a single space.
Why do you use two spaces on a monospaced typewriter?
If you’re using a monospaced typewriter, by all means, use those two spaces. They will help the eye recognize the end of sentences.
What does it mean when letters are monospaced?
In the age of typewriters, an age that ended before some of you were born, letters were monospaced. That meant they all took up the same amount of horizontal space on the page. To put it another way, both the letter W and the letter I, took up the same space from left to write in a word. So the W took the entire width of the character. The letter I had a gap between the letters to immediate left or right.
Does toilet paper always go over?
But just as there’s an unquestionable answer about toilet paper — it always goes over! — there’s also an answer for the spacing question.
Does using two spaces improve reading speed?
The Atlantic reported the results of a study that found using two spaces helped improve reading speed.
Is Chicago style single space?
Most style manuals, including the Chicago Manual of Style, also advocate the single space. So if you follow a style manual, you may be obliged to follow its guidance…like it or not.
Is double space allowed in Word?
So spacing became automatic. Style manuals quickly adopted rules that relied on those word processors, thereby banning the double space practice. Just last year, Microsoft Word began flagging two spaces after a period as a misspelling.
