It has been years since this has come up so frequently in my life, but over the past few months, I have been surrounded by the confusion of spacing after punctuation in word processing. It is mainly in several of my friends' resumes and cover letters that this has come up but also in blogs, personal emails/letters and even twitter!
So, I went straight to my old Moms for the straight dope on spacing. (She's been a Professor of English and Grammar for decades now. She was even referred to as "the Grammar Nazi" at one school.) And, I got this response:
One space after end punctuation. The 2 space deal was for typewriters, but word processing programs automatically adjust for the space. You can use my street cred— associate prof at UMUC.
And, how many spaces after colons?
Single.
I also heard this discussed in my grad program. Several of my teachers hated the improper use of double-spacing.
My Q's for you, dear friends:
Do you agree with this? Why or why not?
So, does this mean that it is weird if I know some actual millennials who double-space after everything but commas?
Do you still double-space and/or believe it is more proper?
When did you switch, if you did?
I have a vague memory of being told to stop the double-spacing sometime in college- possibly 1994? I pretty much accepted it and never looked back. I like the single space. You?
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7 comments:
Dangit. I have always been a double-spacer. See, I just did it again. I feel like I am on my way to recovery, though. Yes, it is happening! See?
One nice thing is that I did quit the double spacing after semicolons some time ago; however, I do double space after colons. Like this: not good.
I like the the single space. It looks classier.
oooh! classy! I like that! It is classier, isn't it?
I say double space. I think it looks better and is easier to read. And in my version of Word 2007, it doesn't make any adjustments to the spacing between sentences. My boss, Deb, agrees with me.
As for colons, I've always adhered to the rule that if you are starting a list of items, you double space, otherwise you use single spaces.
But I'm far from an expert.
well, unfortunately, you & Deb are WRONG! sorry to hurt you like that, but it is correct to single space according to those who govern such things! harsh toke!
see: http://www.webword.com/reports/period.html
An excellent article breaking it down from grammatical and design perspectives. Maybe my problem with the double space is that it is ugly on the screen?
"As a practical matter, however, there is nothing wrong with using two spaces after concluding punctuation marks unless an instructor or editor requests that you do otherwise." -http://www.mla.org/style_faq3
Moms weighs in--Microsoft itself demands one space. See their style guide. I worked as an editor for them, for Intel, and for Boeing. All one space.
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