advice on punctuation

ladyvincenza · Oct 23, 2008

Hi Grammar Rodeo Buckaroos,
My friend critiqued my work and here is some of his advice. I wanted to run it by you guys since I wasn't sure about it. He wrote:

The sentences have one space between periods; I believe two spaces should follow every period. Two spaces should also follow a colon.

Semicolons and commas should have one space following.

Double hyphens, which indicate sentence or clause transitions, should have not have spaces on the left and right sides. Should make double hyphens consistent: Word automatically generates them in some cases.

dobiwon · Oct 23, 2008

ladyvincenza,

From what I've read lately, single spaces after periods is becoming pretty well accepted, if not actually preferred. For the most part, I think most advice is to pick one or the other and be consistent. If an editor prefers one over the other, it'll get changed.

I've always used a single space following semicolons, commas, and colons.

Double hyphens, the em-dash, does not have spaces on the left or right. If you have Word configured to substitute stuff like that, it will automatically make two consecutive hyphens without spaces on either side, into an em-dash.

Carmy · Oct 23, 2008

Yup, dobiwon is right.

Nymtoc · Oct 24, 2008

Also, if we're talking about a Word file, not a printout, anyone working with the file can easily change double spaces to single spaces, or vice-versa, by means of search-and-replace. If a few things don't work out quite right, they can be corrected manually.

Bartholomew · Oct 24, 2008

ladyvincenza said:
Hi Grammar Rodeo Buckaroos,
My friend critiqued my work and here is some of his advice. I wanted to run it by you guys since I wasn't sure about it. He wrote:

The sentences have one space between periods; I believe two spaces should follow every period. Two spaces should also follow a colon.

Semicolons and commas should have one space following.

Double hyphens, which indicate sentence or clause transitions, should have not have spaces on the left and right sides. Should make double hyphens consistent: Word automatically generates them in some cases.

Double spacing is acceptable, but it is really a relic from the ancient past. Modern printers just don't have the same problems typewriters did. They have different problems, but those problems generally don't involve wonky spacing.

Whichever you pick, be consistent. If an editor wants one over the other, make liberal use of your Find and Replace tool, which makes it a painless process.

As for double spacing after anything other than a period--I've never heard of this before. What would be the logic?

dpaterso · Oct 24, 2008

1 space or 2 after the period must qualify as the most frequently recurring question I see on this board.

Have some sympathy for the reader or editor who has a stack of novels to get through this week, and already has bleeding eyeballs before they start on your deathless prose. Fact is, two spaces makes for easier reading -- and ditto spaces on either side of the em-dash.

If whoever you're sending your manuscript to doesn't state any particular preference, I'd always go for the easy reading option.

MS Word is only a piece of software, it doesn't decide publishing industry standards and its default settings aren't always ideal for fiction writers. I deleted the autocorrect option that changes 2 hyphens (--) into the non-standard 1-character em-dash (—) which is sometimes difficult to differentiate from a hyphen, depending on font and printer clarity.

-Derek

Sandi LeFaucheur · Oct 24, 2008

As for double spacing after anything other than a period--I've never heard of this before. What would be the logic?

In typing class, about a hundred years ago, we learned that a colon had 2 spaces afterward, whereas a semi-colon had one. What's the logic? I don't know, but that's the way it was. And that's the way I type to this day.

dpaterso · Oct 24, 2008

Anyone reading smudged copy would know if the unclear character is a colon or a semicolon by the number of spaces following. Dat sounds logical to me.

-Derek

MagicMan · Oct 24, 2008

Actually, a semi-colon is considered a hard comma, and takes the same spacing rule. The colon is soft period, and follows the period spacing rules.

Just be consistent.

MS Word is changing the standard to one space, quickly.

advice on punctuation

ladyvincenza

user-set title

dobiwon

Planning to retire for the 5th time

Carmy

Nymtoc

Benefactor Member

Bartholomew

Comic guy

dpaterso

Also in our Discord and IRC chat channels

Sandi LeFaucheur

dpaterso

Also in our Discord and IRC chat channels

MagicMan