Spaces After Periods: What’s Your Opinion?

I enjoyed this article I read recently on Slate:

Space Invaders

Why you should never, ever use two spaces after a period.

By Farhad Manjoo Posted Thursday, Jan. 13, 2011, at 6:20 PM ET

Can I let you in on a secret? Typing two spaces after a period is totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong.

(To read the whole thing, click here.)

As of this morning, it had received 2309 comments, so obviously people are passionate about the subject. Personally, back when I took “typing for college-bound students” I was taught to put in two spaces. With the advent of word processors, I read somewhere that one space was correct; my automatic “two clicks on the space bar” was a hard habit to break, but eventually I did.

I had a student tell me that she has/had a faculty member who was adamant about two spaces and in fact, marked her paper down because of the missing spaces after periods. This person probably has a disagreeing comment buried in one of the 2300+ posted on the article by Farhad.

I am wondering about my editor colleagues. One space or two, or don’t you give a hoot? Please share in the comments!

6 thoughts on “Spaces After Periods: What’s Your Opinion?

  1. One space and only one space, unless you’re using a monospaced font. Two spaces is a holdover from the days of monospaced fonts, which is what the typewriter I used in high school had.

  2. One space only after a full-stop. Otherwise, when you use justified text it looks a mess when printed and is not at all easy on the eye when reading as it naturally looks for uniformity. Double spacing is a hark back to the pre-PC era!

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