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 learned to touch type. I don’t type a full stop anymore and use the double space to automatically add a full stop. Easy for muscle memory.

Because it’s what I’ve always done, no one has said they are utterly offended by it at work and I don’t see it’s such a huge deal.

I am an editor and proofreader. Changing two spaces to one is one of the first clean-up tasks I do on a MS!

Now we have design software that can ensure spaces are equal between words in a text, if you keep two spaces that really stands out.

This thread has explained to me (after over 30 years) why my first publisher's requests for manuscripts to arrives "double spaced" didn't always get the right result. What they (we) meant was double line spacing, with room for lots of lovely red ink annotation between the lines. Presumably some of the authors thought we wanted double spaces after every full stop instead.

See this article for why: https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/two-spaces-after-period/

Yes, was also taught this in typing/word processing classes and it was the correct way for exams then. Easier to read the sentences?

Typewriters were set up to accommodate the widest letter (which is ‘w’) regardless of whether the letter needed the space or not (an ‘I’ definitely didn’t). As all the letters were so spaced out, to ensure the end of a sentence was clear, a double space was used.

A computer is far more advanced than a typewriter. It can space letters depending on their width. The letters all sit correctly next to each other, so a double space isn’t needed after a full stop. A single space is plenty.

I can't see the double space in your post @JellyBeanSpring25 is it something that the MN computer is "correcting" for you?

It's an old fashioned thing, like indenting the start of each paragraph, or using punctuation after Dear Sir and Yours faithfully in formal letters.

I dont do it, have never done it and delete them. I think its old fashioned, and very ageing in the workplace, which I'm very keen to avoid in my 50s ..

I'd actually forgotten we used to indent the start of each new paragraph!

I would still add a comma after your two examples - is that now outdated too?!

I have never done this - or even seen it. But then I never learned to type. It sounds like it’s something that’s dying out with the older generation (of which at 53, I am one).

Yes, MN (corrects) edits automatically!

You can change your preference under Proofing

Like others, I was taught double spacing after full stop at college in the 1980s. I still use it and I hate to see full stops with only one space after. I hadn’t realised that it was no longer a correct thing to do. I retired a couple of years ago, but I was still amending colleagues’ work to add the extra space in up to that point (sorry folks if the single space was actually correct but it looks messy). To me, it’s like not putting paragraphs in your work, it makes it harder to read.

That’s interesting as at the point I did my office practice training, the commas after the Dear Whoever and the indented paragraphs were already outdated and I haven’t come across anyone still using that format since my first job in the 80s. The double space after full stop was used by most of my colleagues throughout the rest of my working life though . The people who didn’t use it were those who were either a lot younger or hadn’t come from a secretarial background.

Testing. One space.
Testing. Two spaces.

Nope, automatically do just one.

They will prise the double space from my cold, dead hands.