One space between sentences, or two?

Michael Myers

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I've heard that many job application seekers are filtered for age despite disclaimers to the contrary. One way they do so is to observe the number of spaces the applicant uses to separate sentences. Two spaces means old school. One space means the applicant is younger. I got to wondering how this might likewise apply to manuscripts sent to agents, etc. Thoughts, anyone?
 

lizmonster

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Since I export to Word from Scrivener, it's not an issue. But frankly any agent who'd discriminate against me purely because of my age is one I don't want to work with anyway.
 

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I've heard that many job application seekers are filtered for age despite disclaimers to the contrary. One way they do so is to observe the number of spaces the applicant uses to separate sentences. Two spaces means old school. One space means the applicant is younger. I got to wondering how this might likewise apply to manuscripts sent to agents, etc. Thoughts, anyone?

This strikes me as bogus for the following reasons:

1. The rubric for spacing is not new; it's over a hundred years old. It's based on the differences between mono spaced and proportionately spaced type; it existed long before computers or typewriters. So ageism isn't part of the equation, though ignorance may be.

2. If you're using a monospaced face (say Courier) then you should use two spaces after a period. If you're using a proportionately spaced face you only need one space.

3. Most job applications these days are digital, and often, when an employer or HR person reviews the application, they're doing it on screen in a web browser using HTML. HTML ignores all spaces after the first, unless you're using the non-breaking space character or certain exotic Unicode sequences for non Indo-European languages.

Unless you're a typesetter applying for work as a typesetter or a similar occupation, it's not going to matter. Write however, and then if you're worried, convert later.
 

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I've heard that many job application seekers are filtered for age despite disclaimers to the contrary. One way they do so is to observe the number of spaces the applicant uses to separate sentences. Two spaces means old school. One space means the applicant is younger. I got to wondering how this might likewise apply to manuscripts sent to agents, etc. Thoughts, anyone?

One space. Nowt to do with age.

But on the jobseeker front, an easier way to filter out older applicants would be to look at their CV.
 

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I'm old and I use one space despite being trained, back in the dark ages that were the early 1980s, to use two. I do this because when I edit other people's prose (which is all the time thanks to my day job) one of the first things I do is search and replace double spaces with single spaces.

That said, I don't care how someone spaces when they apply to work in my department. The people I'd have a problem with are those who stick hard returns at the "end" of every line. And those who think it's appropriate to start a cover letter "Dear Monsieur/Mademoiselle." And those who believe "resume" means a 17-page, repetitive blow-by-blow of every project they've ever undertaken.

I also don't care whether an applicant is young or old. Competence is a whole lot more important.
 

ap123

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I have seen at least two agents reference (on Twitter) "knowing a querier is old" when they see 2 spaces, and not looking further. On one hand, if that's their focus, well, I'm not going to magically get younger, so I assume those agents won't want to work with me/aren't for me.

That said, I do now try to put one space instead of two as I'm working because if that's current industry standard, I'm going to go with it. A small thing, but harder than I'd thought to retrain myself, lol.
 

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You can do it. I'm up there in age but I do one space automatically now.
 

ap123

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You can do it. I'm up there in age but I do one space automatically now.

Most of the time now I've got it, but I always find some extras when I'm running a check. :)
 

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"2 spaces till I die" would make a great tee shirt slogan, I'd wear it, 'cause that's how I roll.

As has been often said, it's really easy to search/replace 2 spaces to 1 space once you've finished.

-Derek
 

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Except in the case, as I did, you tell Word to replace ".<sp><sp> " with ",<sp>" instead of ".<sp>". Then motor along with new raw material until you read for continuity and pacing only realize the error. At which point "undo" comes in real handy.
 
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dpaterso

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I dunno, I just search/replaced 2 spaces with 1 space, ignoring surrounding punctuation, and it all looks good. Existing 1 spaces were ignored. What am I missing? Maybe something obvious.

-Derek
 

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One space. It's half as much work! :)
 

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One is standard now. So it is a combo of being old school and choosing to stay that way....

Yeppers. Definitely one space between sentences.
 
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Roxxsmom

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One space. Nowt to do with age.

But on the jobseeker front, an easier way to filter out older applicants would be to look at their CV.

This, and I'm sure it's done all the time, legal or not. The year I obtained my Ph.D is kind of a dead giveaway. Even if I omitted the year, the fact I was in school decades ago would be obvious to anyone who reads the transcripts required with the application. Makes it mathematically for me to be very many years younger than I am. I imagine a resume might have similar issues in non academic fields, wouldn't it, or do jobs outside academia not expect to know the year you got any degrees (and verifying transcripts) and time frames of prior employment?

You can do it. I'm up there in age but I do one space automatically now.

Me too. It's an easy switch, since it's a matter of hitting the space bar once instead of twice, which is easier.

Unless, for some reason, I wanted to use a monospaced font. I've never subbed to a market that required that, so I always went with TNR.
 
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Michael Myers

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I dunno, I just search/replaced 2 spaces with 1 space, ignoring surrounding punctuation, and it all looks good. Existing 1 spaces were ignored. What am I missing? Maybe something obvious.
Good point. I screwed up using the punctuation mark as a search target.
 

Roxxsmom

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I fix the spacing to single when I adapt really old handouts for my students that are double spaced before I knew better, or if I have one another instructor has written and given to me to use (many of my colleagues still double space at the ends of sentences). Don't want my students thinking I'm an old fart :D

When turning two spaces to one, the only place you're likely to have double spaces in a typical manuscript is at the end of as sentence, so no need to include the punctuation. Now you's need to include the punctuation if you're doing the reverse: replacing single spaces at the end of the sentence with two. Otherwise it would double space every space between words. You'd have to change it for question marks and exclamation marks and close quotes at the ends of sentences too.

The only time you're likely to need to turn single spaces at the end of sentences to doubles, though, is if you were subbing a manuscript to a market that wants it in monospaced font. This is exceedingly rare, possibly nonexistent, these days, though. I don't think anyone even wants hard copies of manuscripts anymore, let alone monospaced fonts.
 
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benbenberi

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This, and I'm sure it's done all the time, legal or not. The year I obtained my Ph.D is kind of a dead giveaway. Even if I omitted the year, the fact I was in school decades ago would be obvious to anyone who reads the transcripts required with the application. Makes it mathematically for me to be very many years younger than I am. I imagine a resume might have similar issues in non academic fields, wouldn't it, or do jobs outside academia not expect to know the year you got any degrees (and verifying transcripts) and time frames of prior employment?

I left academia & changed careers 20 years ago. On my resume I list my degrees without any dates, and no non-academic employer has ever demanded them or asked for a transcript. The jobs on my resume begin in 1998 -- if employers choose to make any inference about my age on that basis, far be it from me to stop them! They have no reason to expect me to be old till they meet me face-to-face.
 

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Going through a 20 year old manuscript last summer I did the find/replace and didn't have to include the punctuation. It worked just fine. Yeah, it was HARD unlearning (relearning?) how to hit the space bar years ago.

So did the double-space come from when we still used typewriters? Guess I'm old too. lol
 

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I double-space out of habit (I blame it on my typing classes back in HS), but I "try" not to do it these days.

However, when I'm drafting, I really don't worry about it. As soon as I'm ready to start editing, the first thing I do is "find <space><space>" "replace <space>". That takes care of 99% of them.
 

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Going through a 20 year old manuscript last summer I did the find/replace and didn't have to include the punctuation. It worked just fine. Yeah, it was HARD unlearning (relearning?) how to hit the space bar years ago.

So did the double-space come from when we still used typewriters? Guess I'm old too. lol

It came from using monospaced type faces, back in the day of lead type.

Monospaced faces are "fonts" in which every single character has the same width as every other character in the face at the same point size.

A lower e is the same width as an upper case W.

Early typewriters and most typewriters used monospaced type. Later that changed, but by that time, most people had learned to type with two spaces after every period/terminal punctuation.
 

Richard White

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I remember going from my Royal portable typewriter (and believe me, the definition of portable has changed over the years) to my first IBM Selectric, with a changeable ball (We could do Courier AND Times New Roman on the same typewriter.) It was like night and day . . . although the ol' IBM was a tad more expensive than my Royal. I think it ran $125 at the time.
 

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It came from using monospaced type faces, back in the day of lead type.

Monospaced faces are "fonts" in which every single character has the same width as every other character in the face at the same point size.

A lower e is the same width as an upper case W.

Early typewriters and most typewriters used monospaced type. Later that changed, but by that time, most people had learned to type with two spaces after every period/terminal punctuation.

Okay, wow. Thanks for the education. Maybe I'm not as old as I thought. ;)