So, when it comes to typing

[rabidsamfan]

[Poll #1668357]

(inspired by an article over at The Atlantic)

(read the comments! Some are quite giggleworthy!)

Comments

[dreamflower]

In 1968, I took a HS class called "personal typing" (meant for those who were not planning on careers as secretaries) and I was taught "two spaces after a period". That's what I do.

Of course, then my spelling/grammar checker wants to take the extra spaces out, and I meekly allow it.

[goldvermilion87.livejournal.com]

You can set your spellchecker to two spaces. Then it will mark you wrong if you only put one.

Of course, in the end consistency is all that matters.

And REALLY in the end very few people will notice either way.

[semyaza.livejournal.com]

Two by habit. One when I remember that there's no point. :D

[goldvermilion87.livejournal.com]

HAHAH!

I always double space, but it's just habit. I couldn't imagine actually caring that much.

[pollums.livejournal.com]

One space, unless I really need my paper to be longer...

[gentlehobbit.livejournal.com]

Back in the days of the typewriter, I was trained to put two. Then in the decades since, I was retrained on the computer to only put one for... gah... what's the term. Kerned fonts, or non-fixed space fonts.

So, depends on the format. :)

[amedia.livejournal.com]

Back in the days of the typewriter, I was trained to put two. Then in the decades since, I was retrained on the computer to only put one

My experience exactly! I remember being told that computer-printed pages on which two spaces were routinely included suffered from a "river" effect: that is, one could trace a pattern of white space through the text that bore some resemblance to a meandering river.

And when we were switching from typing to word-processing for zines (which is just about the time I first lost my mind became a co-editor), the advantage of the new one-space style was that you could get slightly more text onto a page and thus promise readers slightly more sex, angst, whumpage, or what-have-you per page. :-)

[gentlehobbit.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I remember those "Rivers of White". :)

slightly more sex, angst, whumpage, or what-have-you per page.

Always a good thing! :D

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

I can get rivers of white from ordinary text -- just from the spaces between the words. Double spaces between sentences don't make a lick of difference one way or the other.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

In grade school typing class we were taught to use two spaces. In grad school, we used the Chicago Manual of Style, which says to use only one space, but luckily, none of my profs cared, because two spaces is such an automatic habit that I rarely, if ever, remember to use only one.

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

I learned to type with 2 spaces after a period. This is still my brain's default. However, I am learning to make it only one, which is apparently the new standard for online?

[unhobbityhobbit.livejournal.com]

I was told that you can double space after a full stop if you want to, but I never saw the point in doing it myself.

[lily-the-hobbit.livejournal.com]

I was taught in school with the thought in mind (of my teachers at least) that I would be a professional typist or secretary and we learned only one space after a full stop, comma or any other punctuation mark.

[ansostuff.livejournal.com]

I learned to type on a typewriter. I think we were taughht to only put one space and that is what I use. These days I always make sure there's only one space, and if there are two I always make them by mistake.

[belleferret.livejournal.com]

Oh come on people! I was taught to use two spaces on a manual typewriter decades ago. If you are still typing on a non-proportional typewriter, go ahead and put in two--otherwise, the RULE is one. People are free to break the rules, but don't do it just because you are too lazy to do it correctly!!!!!!!

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

*snicker* Considering that I never heard the one space rule until yesterday -- and I'm a librarian -- I suspect that it won't find itself set into stone for a while yet. I did know that html drops a space if you type two, but I figured that was a computer memory thing.

[belleferret.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, I thought it was well-known by now! You may want to check out this article:
http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/typespacing/a/onetwospaces.htm

As a librarian, you should know all typeset material uses one space. ;-)

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

I literally never thought about it. I never had a teacher in college or grad school who wanted me to single space after the period, so without any counter-influence to my early training on typewriters, the two spaces has stuck. (And this is despite having learned speed typing on a teletypewriter... although come to think of it, periods are also a matter of three keystrokes on those, as well.)

The printed page has always been different than typing, though, since the letters can be differently spaced. What really has changed though is the difference between paragraphs. No indentation? Just a double space down? My typing teacher would be rolling in her grave. (And yet I do it automatically.) Just as automatically as the doublespace -- which I'm typing, even if it doesn't show -- after a period or question mark.)

[belleferret.livejournal.com]

I guess I first learned about it in the early desktop publishing days in the mid to late 80s. Yay for Macs! ;-)

As I recall, fully justified text should have single spacing between paragraphs with an indent, while left-justified text should have be double-spaced with no indent.

Of course, once publishing got in the hands of the masses, all heck broke loose!

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Ironically, the examples they give of blocks of text with or without double spaces only make me like the double space after the period better. And I suspect that the more technical the paper, the more I'd like that visual cue.

I've needed glasses since I was twelve -- anything which makes the work of distinguishing where one thing stops and another starts is okay in my book.

[belleferret.livejournal.com]

LOL I find the two-space examples to be ugly!

And I beat you--I've worn glasses since I was 8!

[elaby.livejournal.com]

I put one, because that's how I was taught (although I did use a typewriter in my early writing, I was taught keyboarding on one of those computers that took giant floppy disks and the only use for which I knew of was to play Oregon Trail). But my wife, who is only a year older than me, learned to put two spaces.

[telstar109.livejournal.com]

I was never taught how to type, and it's never occurred to me to put more than one space. :))

[clevertoad.livejournal.com]

I read this article, laughed so hard I nearly wet myself, and went to apologize to my 12-year-old.

I am an old pood who took typing in the days of manual computers (and though it was Really Cool when I got my hands on a Selectric once). It gives me mental anguish to only type one space after a period. I still think it looks better, giving weight to the the verbal pause that the period implies.

My kid is a thoroughly modern little snirp who told me his teachers TOLD him to only put one space in his typed essay, when Mom attempted to correct his (admittedly still erratic) typing. And Mom didn't believe him.

So mea culpa, I will bow to the evolution of typesetting and stop correcting the kid. And I guarantee you I will NEVER stop typing two myself.

Me and the mousies going to go play in the cave mud with our pet dinosaur now, and reminisce about The Way It Used To Be.

[telperion1.livejournal.com]

I use one space, but that's just because of the way I type. Something about my hand position makes it a little awkward to hit the space bar, and if I was typing a lot I started to notice my wrist would get sore. So I opted for one.

[methylviolet10b]

What can I say - I learned to type on an electric typewriter, and the typing instructor I had in high school was adamant about the two-space-after-periods rule. I can type only one space after a period, but it's not instinctive. Frankly, it's easier for me to run search-and-replace afterwards and eliminate all the extra spaces that way. :-)

And yes, the article is a hoot!

[kcscribbler]

TWO spaces. ALWAYS TWO. Despite what HTML and new punctuation rules say.

/old-school grammar-nazi rant

[i-o-r-h-a-e-l.livejournal.com]

I used to put two spaces after a period when our house style decided that. :)

[frodobaggins-88.livejournal.com]

Double space, most definitely. Grammar books and typing in jr. high/high school both taught me this is the proper way to do it. Plus, if sentences only have one space, I tend to have a hard time distinguishing where the sentence ends and another begins because of my astigmatism.

[evaray-wonder.livejournal.com]

Two if I'm typing a school paper. One if I'm just doing something on the interwebs.

[wouldbeashame.livejournal.com]

Always two, and an argument if someone tells me I must only use one, as well as polite tolerance if someone else wants to use one.