# One space or two? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 18, 2008, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-space-or-two/445825 "2008-04-18T02:09:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2008, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-space-or-two/445825/81 "2008-04-20T03:19:27Z")
I was taught that two spaces is proper. Would Sister Winifred lie to me? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2008, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-space-or-two/445825/82 "2008-04-20T03:38:49Z")
[QUOTE=AuntPam] As everyone here runs on about their personal preferences, I’d just like to offer a word for someone we all seem to have forgotten: THE READER. [/quote] Who forgot the reader? The one space rule for proportional fonts _is_ based on readibility. I cannot stand seeing a proportional font with double width spaces between periods. It completely breaks the flow for me. Do you have problems reading professionally typeset publications? Because those are not set with two spaces after periods. As has been mentioned, it varies on the font, averaging out to maybe a space and a half, but the point is, Word and all your desktop publishing programs automatically figure out for you what the correct spacing is, based on font, size, etc. You do not need to hit the spacebar a second time, and it absolutely drives me batty, as a reader, to see these weird hiccups of extra space between sentences. So, yes, the reader has been taken into account in all of this. The guideline is _based_ on the reader. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2008, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-space-or-two/445825/83 "2008-04-20T03:51:22Z")
[QUOTE=ZenBeam] I use two spaces after a period because when it matters, I want to have the two spaces there. When it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter. If I’m writing comments for code I’m writing, the extra period makes it more readable. If I’m writing in LaTeX or a SDMB reply box, the output is unaffected, but again, it’s easier for me to read while I’m writing. Frankly, I don’t see any reason why I should change my typing habits to using only one space following a period. If your software has a hard time handling it, get better software. [/QUOTE] Just so you know, most publishers are NOT going to go out and get better software because some of their authors are stubborn. It’s a lot more likely they’d go out and get better authors. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2008, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-space-or-two/445825/84 "2008-04-20T04:01:44Z")
[QUOTE=Hilarity N. Suze] Just so you know, most publishers are NOT going to go out and get better software because some of their authors are stubborn. It’s a lot more likely they’d go out and get better authors. [/QUOTE] Well, to be fair, as someone who is staunchly in the one-space side of the debate… Do you really think publishers are going to reject authors for an understandable stylistic quirk like this? ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2008, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-space-or-two/445825/85 "2008-04-20T06:30:31Z")
[QUOTE=Ponderoid] If you’re not indenting your paragraph starts, the blank line between paragraphs is an absolute must for readability. You can’t expect the wrapping to always produce a short line right before you start the next paragraph to clue your reader in that a new one has started. \*\*\* Ponder [/QUOTE] Depends, my work had a lot of two or three paragraph ‘standard reply’ options. Some letters were 1.5 or 2 line spaced throughout just to balance the text on the page. Otherwise we’d have ended up sending out ‘top heavy’ letters with the signature halfway down the page. In those cases it was better to adjust the wording than to have a huge blank space in the middle of the text. I worked in four or five different corporate / government offices during the 80’s, each had their own rules and their own full day letter writing courses to explain why theirs was the correct way. Indents and 2 spaces after periods were uniformly out of vogue by the mid 80’s. Fonts, sizes, line spacing and paragraph breaks varied (this also happens with publishers - I went through the list of NZ publishers and found that, out of the first ten, 5 specified different requirements for layout). I prefer a space between paragraphs but, even here on the forums, I’ll take them out if the result looks too patchy or open. If I’m working for someone else, their rules apply. I agree completely that without blank lines, indents make paragraphs much easier to read, it’s just that I’ve been repeatedly taught that they make the work look old fashioned. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2008, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-space-or-two/445825/86 "2008-04-20T15:02:47Z")
[QUOTE=pulykamell] Well, to be fair, as someone who is staunchly in the one-space side of the debate… Do you really think publishers are going to reject authors for an understandable stylistic quirk like this? [/QUOTE] Yes. [http://themetropolitan.metrostate.edu/submissionGuidelines.html](http://themetropolitan.metrostate.edu/submissionGuidelines.html) > [@](#): > > Have only one space after each period. > … > Submissions that do not meet these requirements may be rejected or returned to the writer or photographer for correction. [http://www.theopenvein.com/submit.html](http://www.theopenvein.com/submit.html) > [@](#): > > Please only put one space between sentences. This is the style that The Open Vein uses for publication, and it gets very cumbersome to have to remove all those extra periods. Manuscripts that blatantly disregard these guidelines will be rejected. > **[FaithGiant Acquires EnvoyMagazine - FaithGiant](https://faithgiant.com/news-faithgiant-acquires-envoymagazine/)** > > A leader in the Christian website industry, FaithGiant.com acquires Rediscovering the Bible last May 9, 2024. > [@](#): > > Put only one space between sentences, no matter what they told you in typing class; our typesetting style calls for one space. [http://www.corpse.org/index.php?option=com\_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=28](http://www.corpse.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=28) > [@](#): > > Important: Before you send us your work, make absolutely sure that your sentences are separated by only one space. [http://www.blazingadventuresmagazine.com/Bam!webpages/SubmissionsGuidelines.htm](http://www.blazingadventuresmagazine.com/Bam!webpages/SubmissionsGuidelines.htm) > [@](#): > > Do not skip more than one space after the ending of sentences. Skip one space. [http://www.mariancatechist.com/html/writersapostolate/writingforpublication/tilma.htm](http://www.mariancatechist.com/html/writersapostolate/writingforpublication/tilma.htm) > [@](#): > > Put only one space between sentences, no matter what they told you in typing class. Typewriters were designed with monofonts, so that every character was the same width, like this: mmmmm iiiii. Modern computers use variable fonts, in which wide letters take up more space, like this: mmmmm iiiii. Variable fonts are designed to look right with one space between sentences. [http://www.newacademia.com/guidelines.html](http://www.newacademia.com/guidelines.html) > [@](#): > > Use only one space after period and other punctuation marks. Never use more than one space. [https://www.delmarvayouth.com/Submission\_Guidelines.html](https://www.delmarvayouth.com/Submission_Guidelines.html) > [@](#): > > Also, when you type for publication, please use only ONE SPACE after the period at the end of a sentence. [http://facingnorth.net/index.php?option=com\_content&task=section&id=11&Itemid=38](http://facingnorth.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=section&id=11&Itemid=38) > [@](#): > > There is only one space after a sentence, not two or more. That’s from the top of the first page of Google. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2008, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-space-or-two/445825/87 "2008-04-20T15:34:35Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase] Yes. [/QUOTE] Wow, hardcore! ---
**Author:** ![VernWinterbottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c67d28/32.png) [@VernWinterbottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VernWinterbottom)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2008, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-space-or-two/445825/88 "2008-04-20T16:20:58Z")
See the reason it was ever allowed before, besides the monospacing and readability of typewriter text, is that work that was published was reset from the typewritten manuscript by a compositer. It didn’t much matter how the maunuscript was typed. Today, the work of the writer can be composed to a page directly from the original word processing file. Hence, any quirk of the typist must be corrected before publication. For the magazine I publish, only two of the regular columnists still slip once in a while and add the extra space. One works in a law office. The other is my mother, who learned to type in a high school business course in 1953. ---
**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2008, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-space-or-two/445825/89 "2008-04-20T16:22:00Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase] That’s from the top of the first page of Google. [/QUOTE] What were you searching for? Watch out for confirmation bias. \*\*\* Ponder ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2008, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-space-or-two/445825/90 "2008-04-20T16:59:16Z")
[QUOTE=Ponderoid] What were you searching for? Watch out for confirmation bias. \*\*\* Ponder [/QUOTE] I was searching for easily clickable examples of what I already knew to exist: writers guidelines that threatened rejection for using two spaces after the period in manuscripts. Any professional writer could tell you that this is standard practice. As I have been doing throughout this thread. Watch out for poor reading comprehension. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-space-or-two/445825/91 "2008-04-21T00:31:33Z")
[QUOTE=AuntPam] As everyone here runs on about their personal preferences, I’d just like to offer a word for someone we all seem to have forgotten: [/QUOTE] 1: I’m not talking about personal preferences. I’m talking about _every single professional style guide_ I’ve ever encountered in over 25 years as a professional writer. 2: It _is_ about the reader. Proportionally-spaced fonts are designed to look good with one space after the period. People spend many, many hours designing them to look the way they do. It’s not random; it’s not capricious. [QUOTE=pulykamell] Well, to be fair, as someone who is staunchly in the one-space side of the debate… Do you really think publishers are going to reject authors for an understandable stylistic quirk like this? [/QUOTE] **Exapno** beat me to this one (and did a mighty fine job of it), but let me add to what he wrote. At the bottom end (a small-circulation newspaper or magazine, for example), the editors are so desperate for material that they’ll take just about anything. If you’re a halfway decent writer with halfway decent ideas, you’d have to put 24 spaces and a naked picture of the editor’s spouse at the end of each sentence to be rejected. At the top end (e.g., national magazines, large newspapers, and book publishers), the competition is intense and the pay is good. If you want your work to be accepted, then you’ll follow their submission guidelines to the letter–and those submission guidelines will call for one and only one space at the end of each sentence. ---
**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-space-or-two/445825/92 "2008-04-21T01:27:38Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase] I was searching for easily clickable examples of what I already knew to exist: writers guidelines that threatened rejection for using two spaces after the period in manuscripts. Any professional writer could tell you that this is standard practice. As I have been doing throughout this thread. Watch out for poor reading comprehension. [/QUOTE] My comprehension is fine. I did comprehend that you were showing that the practice exists. I also comprehended that you were attempting to go beyond proving that the practice exists, and you reiterated it again with your response here: You wanted to prove that the practice was standard. A search along the lines of “two spaces after periods required” of course is going to show you the practice exists. It won’t show how prevalent it is. Your assertion that the first half-page of Google results had what you were looking for does nothing to prove the wider assertion. Claiming that Google backed you up on this, without reporting what search criteria you used, does not constitute proof of how standard it is. I don’t think it was unreasonable to ask what your criteria was. \*\*\* Ponder ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-space-or-two/445825/93 "2008-04-21T02:00:25Z")
[QUOTE=goofball] I was told in high school to use two spaces after the period that ends a sentence. Lately though, I’ve noticed some web sites advocating the use of only one space after the period at the end of a sentence. So which is correct - one space or two. [/QUOTE] depends on how you define correct. I use one. It is the standard usage for printing. Look at any well-printed book. Two spaces were an accomodation for monospaced fonts back when we were still using typewriters. ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-space-or-two/445825/94 "2008-04-21T02:06:01Z")
[QUOTE=mazinger\_z] I was taught all the way through law school to use two periods. If my paralegals give me anything with one space, I write across the first page: “TWO (2) SPACES BETWEEN PARAGRAPHS!1!” Then, I send a company wide e-mail showing the example, and I make sure to make note of it on his performance review. [/QUOTE] If your law school taught you to use two periods (unusual to me. But I am not a lawyer), why did you fuss at staff when they used one space? Was that also a convention in your law school? When did you graduate? As the other posters have noted, if you go far enough back, most schools taught two spaces (never heard of two periods), as a workaround for the limitations of mechanical typewriters. ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-space-or-two/445825/95 "2008-04-21T02:07:46Z")
[QUOTE=Sophistry and Illusion] Yeah! Frankly, I’m not sure I could re-train myself to put one space after a period. I have been typing so long, and typed so many hundreds of thousands of words, that my thumb goes ‘tap tap’ on the space bar after a period of its own volition. [/QUOTE] It isn’t a big deal. I do a global search and replace on two spaces. Problem solved in a couple of seconds. It also catches the far more serious problem of people using spaces for tabs. ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-space-or-two/445825/96 "2008-04-21T02:14:15Z")
[QUOTE=Justin Credible] This is the first I’ve heard of this debate. I’ve always used double spaces after a sentence, and it strikes me as odd that anyone would do it differently. It just seems wrong to me. I guess I don’t really notice it on here, but in a program like Microsoft word or on a hard copy paper, the sentences would run together too much I think. [/QUOTE] Check out any published text (book, newspaper, etc). two spaces are only used as an accomodation for typewriters. ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-space-or-two/445825/97 "2008-04-21T02:25:14Z")
[QUOTE=Saltire] By the way, I learned to type on a manual typewriter as well, and was taught double-spacing after periods. But I stopped doing that immediately when I got on a computer. [/QUOTE] There was a period where they still taught double-space even on a computer. I know it was part of my high-school typing class in 1992 or so, when we were using WordStar or some similar piece of junk, instead of something useful like Wordperfect 5.1. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-space-or-two/445825/98 "2008-04-21T05:02:51Z")
[QUOTE=pulykamell] Well, to be fair, as someone who is staunchly in the one-space side of the debate… Do you really think publishers are going to reject authors for an understandable stylistic quirk like this? [/QUOTE] As I said, it’s more likely that they’d do this than that they’d replace their software to accommodate the quirk. But I always submit my manuscripts just the way my publisher asks for them. I do want to note, however, that at my publishing company, a great many of the authors are lawyers. And they do seem to be clinging to the two-space standard a lot more vociferously than people in other professions. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-space-or-two/445825/99 "2008-04-21T05:18:59Z")
I put two spaces after the period. That’s how I was taught and until I need to change it for a legitimate reason, that’s how I’ll continue to type. I also declaw my cats with pliers, dip my feet in mud before walking through people’s houses and blame problems on fat people. If the computer software corrects it anyway, what’s the big deal? ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-space-or-two/445825/100 "2008-04-21T05:53:17Z")
[QUOTE=Hilarity N. Suze] I do want to note, however, that at my publishing company, a great many of the authors are lawyers. And they do seem to be clinging to the two-space standard a lot more vociferously than people in other professions. [/QUOTE] My company handles transcripts for both business and law enforcement, and my impression at least is that the district attorneys and police departments tend to request two spaces more often. The business customers never ask for it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-space-or-two/445825.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-space-or-two/445825.md?page=6)