Two spaces after a full stop

[MyDuvetDay]

Do you do this?

Or do you correct this in other people’s work by deleting all their extra spaces?

I was taught 3 spaces after a full stop, 2 after a colon or demi-colon, and single space after a comma! That was on a manual typewriter at college many years ago. As others have said, it's muscle memory and quite hard to correct if you're a touch typist.

I work in book publishing and I find and replace all double spaces with single. Sometimes the double spacing means things can’t fit on a line or a page layout. It doesn’t look neater at all to have double spaces imho. Looks naff.

@JennyChawleigh Three spaces after a full stop is just crazy talk!

It's how I was taught (on Word in 2008, not on a typewriter) and I simply couldn't/wouldn't stop. It's muscle memory and I think it looks smarter.

It's often a 'tell' for older people who learnt to type formally, on a typewriter. We were taught to put two spaces after a full stop - it was the correct way to do it. When 'word processors' arrived and then computers, it stopped being necessary. These days, copy editors (like me), delete them when we come across them - and usually let the culprit know that they are giving their age away. 😄

The thing is, those of us who are old enough to have been taught this way were almost certainly not in a learning setting when it changed, so it’s just habitual and we haven’t been taught otherwise. Had I have still been in education when it was changed I probably would have adapted but that change was never taught, unlike the double space, so it stays for me.

I’m a single spacer, and I will change it in other people’s documents most of the time when I’m reviewing, but mostly because there ends up being a couple of sentences not double spaced and I hate the inconsistency, and it’s easier for me to find and replace all double spaces with one (to catch the double spaces mid sentence).

Double space after a full stop. Two carriage returns between paragraphs.

Thus.

I’m 62 and haven’t used two spaces since I was around 27!

Have you not noticed that virtually no one does it any more?

This suggests you were a relatively early adopter of word processing back in the days of the 386 computer. Amirite?

I used to use an Amstrad word processor, then onto Wordperfect, late 80s. Never used a typewriter though apart from messing about with my mum's.

It's very old fashioned and I say this as someone who learned to type in 1982! When I was working in an office, I used to do a search and delete on it. The only colleague I remember doing it consistently (and despite being asked not to) was a complete wanker in other ways, so make of that what you like!

For us older touch typists, it’s muscle memory.

However, once I learned it was also a ‘tell’ that I was an older person, I quickly stopped doing it.

You use search and replace.

I hate double spaces and correct them.

Looks terrible with modern typefaces. They are already designed with the correct spacing for full stops. Luckily it’s an easy search and replace to remove!

I do this. I was taught on a manual keyboard and decades of thinking this looks better is hard to change.

No. I hadn’t noticed. Like a lot of people have said, it’s a muscle memory thing.

Though that doesn’t excuse/explain me using it in texts.

It’s a throwback from when typewriters were used as it gave the keys longer between the shift being used so didn’t jam. It’s only just recently I stopped double spacing but it took some time to unlearn (as a touch typist). I now only single space. I do think double looks better to read but the program we use at work the layout goes funny if you double space after a full stop.

I was taught in my first graduate job in the 90s that it was outdated! So I never do it. And I deleted other people's 😁

Yes absolutely double space. Everyone I have ever worked with in multinational companies do it unless maybe it's Teams - but that's more casual at times anyway.

I also do the double space. It's what I was taught learning to type (Pitmans) way back when! Although I don't do it on here strangely.

I delete. I use find and replace to do it on others’ work 😂

It’s how I was taught when I learned to type back in 1981. And I always did it. Haven’t worked for years but still do it when typing. And will continue to do so.

We were taught there was a correct way to type, address envelopes, set letters and documents out.

Who decided it wasn’t the done thing and when? Bloody young whippersappers! 😄

(I do appreciate times change - otherwise we could still be writing with a quill and ink - or using multiple sheets of carbon paper for copies…..)