Double white space.

Captain Morgan · Apr 9, 2007

This may be a weird question, but hear me out. When I used to go to highschool they had two keyboarding courses. I took both and we were instructed to use the double-whitespace rule for sentences.

In simple terms, words are seperated by a single space bar, but each sentence was seperated by a double space bar. This is something that is pretty much automatic with me, and often I can spot plagerized material when reading someone's essay and then suddenly notice that the double space reduces to single space for certain paragraphs. Internet web pages reduce to single spacing, and the old copy & paste trick gets caught that way.

I have noticed that a lot of people don't adhear to this rule, and has made me wonder if perhaps my teachers were too old-school? With automatic spacing & everything else word processors come with these days, perhaps that rule was supposed to be only for typewriters?

I'm not sure, or maybe it was originally only intended for business letters. When we were taught this form, we were using Tandy computers running WP 5.1 back in the day. Is it time I unlearn what I have learned?

Maybe I just had bad teachers my whole life...

scarletpeaches · Apr 9, 2007

I'd never heard of this rule before joining AW. It's never been an issue for me.

Pomegranate · Apr 9, 2007

It's ultimately an issue of readability and changing technology.

Typewritten documents (as opposed to those typed on a computer) use a monospace font. Each character gets the same amount of width. Two spaces after a period creates a readable visual break in the text. In a word processor, fonts are proportional to the width of the character. In that case, only one space is required.

I'm a technical writer and every place I've worked the 1 vs 2 spaces after a period thing comes up as an issue. The answer is always the same. Pick the one you like best and be consistent. If you're not sure what to pick, use only 1 space, since most of us use proportional fonts and word processors.

TheIT · Apr 9, 2007

Two spaces vs. one space after the end of a sentence is talked about in several threads in AW. The consensus I've seen is that two shows you were taught to type on a typewriter, one usually means you were taught to type on a computer. Either is acceptable unless publisher guidelines specifically say otherwise. Just be consistent throughout your manuscript.

Lauri B · Apr 9, 2007

Don't worry about it. Really. Write a great manuscript or proposal. Format it to the guidelines (generally speaking--don't use some weirdo font or pink paper or single space everything if the guidelines ask for double spacing), but you don't need to worry about stuff like whether or not you have hit your spacebar twice or once. I promise no one cares.

Provrb1810meggy · Apr 9, 2007

It's funny. I'm fourteen, and I learned typing probably back in fifth grade, so this was only a few years ago. Our computer teacher always instructed us to leave two spaces after a sentence, so that's always what I've used. I've never had a problem with it.

Rich · Apr 9, 2007

I do two spaces--I'm old. What bothers me is double spacing between lines. The reason for it before pubs took online submissions was the editing factor. One has enough space to blue-pencil edit on the hard copy. If you email your submission it really doesn't make a difference, yet some pubs still want the old double spacing.

Captain Morgan · Apr 9, 2007

Now that I think about it, Word Perfect 5.1 (which was the monopoly back in the day) was always exactly 80 characters per line. I assume that could have something to do with it. We were instructed when guessing how many words we had, to take the 80 characters, divide by I think 5 to give words per line, then multiply that by average lines per page to give our word count.

Oh sure we could do a spell check which would tell us the total # of words, but I guess they wanted us to know the logistics of it. Now... IIRC when doing print-preview the 80 characters per line didn't always adhere 100%.

If people are still teaching the rule now, then I guess it's not that old. I'll keep with it until I run into an editor/agent/publisher who tells me not to because it's causing problems with their typesettings.

Gillhoughly · May 4, 2007

Grumpy editor here.

I like two spaces separating sentences. One space always looks squashed and rushed to my eye.

Besides, if you hit a comma instead of a period two spaces lets me know it's a typo, not a run-on sentence.

Jamesaritchie · May 12, 2007

Spaces

Another grumpy editor. I, too, prefer two spaces after a sentence. The single space rule comes from years ago when two spaces between sentences screwed up some electronic formatting.

And contrary to what many writers do, manuscripts should use a monospaced font such as Courier.

And even with Times New Roman, the letters and words and sentences are so close together that two spaces between sentences makes editing much easier.

The no double space "rule" between sentences is one of those things born of a misunderstanding, and simply run with by those who don't have to edit.

Really, it's not a big deal, and no editor will yell at you either way. But with paper manuscripts, appearance is not the issue, and writers need to stop worrying about how something looks. Format is for editing purposes, not appearance. The manuscript is not what gets published. And the number one thing any editor wants in format is all the space you can give him so inserting proofreaders' marks is easy, rather than painstaking.

Julie Worth · May 12, 2007

In any case, it's a simple matter to change all those double spaces to single. Just a few seconds, usually.

SHBueche · May 13, 2007

I'm a two-spacer, but I'm trying to reform, perhaps attend rehab for a 12-step program or something. Yeah, I did it, only one space between this sentence and the previous one. I've never had an editor require two spaces, but plenty have requested only one space therefore I'm trying my best to use only one space between sentences.

Julie Worth · May 13, 2007

SHBueche said:
I'm a two-spacer, but I'm trying to reform, perhaps attend rehab for a 12-step program or something. Yeah, I did it, only one space between this sentence and the previous one. I've never had an editor require two spaces, but plenty have requested only one space therefore I'm trying my best to use only one space between sentences.

The habit is hard to break, but don't worry about it. When you finish, just do a find and replace. Type two spaces in the find box and one in the replace box. Then "replace all". (You might want to do this more than once, in case you've some instances of three spaces.)

Jamesaritchie · May 17, 2007

SHBueche said:
I'm a two-spacer, but I'm trying to reform, perhaps attend rehab for a 12-step program or something. Yeah, I did it, only one space between this sentence and the previous one. I've never had an editor require two spaces, but plenty have requested only one space therefore I'm trying my best to use only one space between sentences.

The average editor probably doesn't have a clue whether you use one space or two, and any editor who complain about two spaces about is an editor thinking about the wrong things.

Double white space.

Captain Morgan

scarletpeaches

Pomegranate

TheIT

Infuriatingly Theoretical

Lauri B

I Heart Mac

Provrb1810meggy

Rich

Captain Morgan

Gillhoughly

Grumpy writer and editor

Jamesaritchie

Julie Worth

What? I have a title?

SHBueche

What happened to my LIFE?!

Julie Worth

What? I have a title?

Jamesaritchie