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Post by Chicago Jake on Dec 7, 2010 14:16:47 GMT -6
Many of us, I'm sure, have to use written communications in our careers (not that you could tell by what passes for writing on this here board!), and it pays to look professional. I was always taught that a period (or other sentence-ending punctuation) is followed by TWO spaces. But now I'm seeing references to ONE space being considered standard.
When did this ch-ch-change? I never got a memo. Any thoughts?.......Jake
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Post by Ardbeg... innit on Dec 7, 2010 14:32:33 GMT -6
I have noticed that too Jake, and I have no idea as to the why's, when's and wherefore's. My recollection is that a single space became more prevalent after variable width font typewriters came about in the 70's, but didnt become the norm until the "word processing" era began in the 80's. But that could just be my perception.
Edited: Being an aged geezer, I try to go with the single space, but will occasionally slip back into double space if I am not thinking about it.
Along the same lines (and something I am more successful at using day to day) is the extra line between paragraphs and not indenting the first word.
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Post by ♥ COVID-19♥ on Dec 7, 2010 14:41:15 GMT -6
Of greater concern is what happens when you don't punctuate correctly in the first place -- many people have encountered a lifetime of grief due to someone missing a period.
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Post by Ardbeg... innit on Dec 7, 2010 14:54:48 GMT -6
Not to mention how doing an extra line can mess up your life
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Post by ♥ COVID-19♥ on Dec 7, 2010 15:20:37 GMT -6
And let's not even discuss proper usage of a colon.
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Post by Chicago Jake on Dec 7, 2010 15:39:12 GMT -6
Okay, I expected this to degenerate pretty quickly. But not THIS quickly.
Anyway, my little bit of research agrees with Gordon: the two-space rule was invented for typewriters, which used constant-width characters for close to a century. But the advent of proportional font typewriters and computer word processing (especially those with automatic kerning) has made that unnecessary. Most of us probably learned to type in the 70s or early 80s, so we learned to use double spaces.
Edit to add: Good point about the extra blank line replacing the indent. I hadn't thought of that, but you are correct.
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