Are you still double spacing after you end a sentence? Well, stop! All of the style guides The Chicago Manual of Style, the AP Stylebook, and the Modern Language Association (MLA) except for the American Psychological Association want you to space only once after you end a sentence. I know, I know, it may be really hard to break the habit of hitting the space bar twice, but you’re still not listening to your 8-track today, right?
You might be wondering how you didn’t get the spacing memo. Since word processors came into being in the late 70s/80s, spacing only once after a sentence has become the norm. This is because typewriters monospaced all of the characters, so that an “i” took up the same space as an “m.” Computers use proportional spacing so each character is adjusted for the space and double spacing after periods became an extra unnecessary step. In addition, newspapers frowned on having all of that wasted space in columns which could become valuable ad dollars. In my high school typing class in the late 80s, I was taught to double space after periods and colons—it took me awhile to change my old habits, but I have faith you can too!
But Don’t Two Spaces Look Better?
Not really. Two spaces make the document “holey” and disjointed. It DOES NOT make it easier for someone to read your work nor does it help the reader know you ended your sentence. As an editor, my eyes go directly to the double spaces and then I start hyperventilating, wondering how many spaces I’ll need to correct. So yes, this blog post is really a public service announcement for my present and future clients!
What if You Don’t Want to Change Your Double-Spacing Ways?
My, aren’t we stubborn? Well, you can stick it to the Man by double spacing in your emails, drafts and letters. Just don’t double space when you’re sending off that email to your future agent, editor or publisher.
Bottom line: please save the spaces! It only takes a small change to make a big difference!
Your Turn:
Are you a single spacer or a double spacer? How do you feel about this convention?
Thanks for the history lesson, Alice! I didn’t know the bit of trivia about typewriters, but I did hear that the QWERTY layout was invented to minimize hammer collisions. Whenever I edit a long document, the first thing I do is a “replace all” – I replace “. ” with “. ” In some documents, particularly manuscripts that have a long history of splicing together, I have found 4 and 5 spaces after a period. Fun, fun, fun!
Hi Dave, thanks so much for great tip! Hey, the two spaces thing is what keeps us editors in business:)
Hey Alice,
I wondered when this new “law” was passed. Now from someone who has been double-spacing after the end of a sentence for many …. years, I will try to break that but when speedily typing along, I may still – out of habit – do it!
Thanks for letting me know why it happened!
Hi Colleen–I’m always glad to help! So think of me when you want to type two spaces:)