by Peggy Robin
From time to time I use my space in this column to kvetch about a pet peeve, usually grammatical. The last time I did that was December 18, 2021, complaining about the overuse of ellipses...so you see I haven't exactly been indulging myself in this endeavor. Indeed, I consider the following a rather overdue complaint:
Nobody should be typing two spaces after a period!
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| Nothing Says Over 40 Like Two Spaces after a Period! by Jennifer Gonzalez |
That's it. No waffling, no excuses, no "But that's how I was taught to do it." I don't doubt that your typing teacher told you to do so in 1958. And your civics teacher taught you there were 48 states. Things change, and you've got to move with the times.
Back in the ancient days when the Royals, the Smith Coronas, the Olympias, and the Olivettis ruled the ribbon and the page, the typist had no way to adjust the spacing between slender letters like "l" and "i" and wide ones like "w" and "m." If a sentence ended with a wide letter and the next sentence started with a wide letter, it could be a bit hard on the eyes to see where one sentence ended and another one began -- but it did help to have those two spaces after the period to widen the gap. So it made sense that all the style guides told you to insert a little extra white space in between.
However, by the time the computer keyboard had replaced the typewriter in every home and office, that rationale -- the ONLY rationale for the "two spaces after a period" rule -- ceased to exist. Now the computer adjusts the space for you perfectly, every time. So what happens if, out of habit or out of a lingering faith that the two-space rule is some sort of noble tradition that you must continue to uphold, you keep on typing two spaces after your sentence-ending periods? I'll tell you: Your computer will think you have put that extra space in there because you always want it there, and so when that period happens to fall at the end of a line, the computer will preserve that extra space for you --even though it causes the next line to start with a meaningless space. Which will look exactly like a one-space indent at the start of a new line in the middle of a paragraph.
I see this all the time in messages people post to the Listserv. And it's annoying! Yes, it's a petty, little thing, but we all have our petty little things that get an outsized reaction, and this is mine. So I will go through a pending message on the Listserv, and I will eliminate the extra spaces, one by one, if I have the time. Well, sometimes I do it even when I don't have the time. I can't help myself. Mildly obsessed, I guess. If one has to have an obsession, there must be worse ones than closing up double spaces after a period.....or overusing ellipses!
I also know it's a futile effort to get people to change their ways. These junior high habits can be so ingrained! And we do tend to cling to the old, familiar rules.
All the same, I cling to the hope that some people will keep an open mind and will be willing to change, if given a good enough reason. I offer these three:
1. ALL the authoritative style guides (Chicago, AP, Gregg, et al.) tell you to put only one space after a period at the end of a sentence;
and
2. You show your age if you keep on putting in two spaces after the end of a sentence;
and
3. If you stop sending in posts to the Listserv with two spaces after a period, you will save me from myself! I won't waste any more time combing over posts to cut out the extra spaces. This will free me up to spend more of my time rescuing puppies and working toward world peace. Or maybe just getting to bed at a more reasonable hour. A good cause, in any case. Is it really so much to ask?
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Still Life with Robin is published on the Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local on Saturdays.
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