The solicitor general, who represents the united states in the nations highest court, is the only official of the u. Nothing says over 40 like two spaces after a period. Double spacing after a period could reveal your age. Via the new legal writer blog, the following is a an interesting post about how many spaces should follow a period. In monospaced fonts, the letters are all the same width, so an i is the same width as an m, but in. The point is, its not only widely accepted, its expected that you use only one space after a period. Its national library week, which prompted me to think about my favorite government reference book the u. Miller said that the two spaces after a period have a mathematical beauty that makes it easier to read. Microsoft word now flags two spaces after a period as an. But it will make legal writing easier for lawyers, at a. Latex sometimes puts too much or too little space after. The majority of style guides that use a latinderived alphabet as a language base now prescribe or recommend the use of a single.
Fun with the gpo style manual government book talk. Why cant i use two spaces after a period on my website. The first day, our teacher told us that two spaces after a period was old fashioned, so i never maintained the habit. I too, in writing my books, use two 2 spaces after the period. We do use two spaces in legal writing, ie letters, pleadings, releases. Its the online formatting guide more editors point to than any other. Among the most acrimonious writingrelated debates one finds on language blogs is one sparked by the innocuous question, do you put one or two spaces after a period. I need there to be two spaces after every period in every sentence in our entire site dont ask. The nation was rocked this week by a paradigmshattering study.
One space between sentences typography for lawyers. Two spaces used to be a typesetting convention, but that went out of. But the editor of the guide did us all the service of. Manuscript format for fiction writers, the way the professionals do it. The scientific case for two spaces after a period the.
Science has definitively found that two spaces after a period in typed text provides the most efficient reading experience for. Should i put spaces after periods in the following examples. Simply write as you always would with two spaces and. Using the legalboard wont stop lawyers from using two spaces after a period, writing in times new roman, or including unnecessary string citations. Most of my posts take days or weeks to research, draft, illustrate, and revise, but this one took less than two hours. I found, in reading my first book, it was difficult to tell where the end of the sentence was. You will notice that the preceding sentence does not end with a period nor does this one. Like two spaces after a period, underlining is a holdover from the typewriter era, where.
Since the introduction of movabletype printing in europe, various sentence spacing. Should you use one space or two spaces after a period. The standard is one space after a sentenceending period, not two. Yet many years after that typing class, i typed the manuscript for my first book on a plastic. Sentence spacing proper manuscript format william shunn. If you went to high school in the years before typing class morphed into keyboarding, as i did, you were probably taught to use two spaces after a. Two spaces after a period at the end of a sentence started when the typewriter replaced hand set printing presses. Science has definitively found that two spaces after a period in typed text provides the most efficient reading experience for readers. In my freshman year of high school, 1986, i took the required typing class. Government printing office style manual, which since 1894 has been the federal. I find two spaces after a period unsettling, like seeing a person who never blinks or still has their phones keyboard sound effects on. Actually academia and law style books dont require two spaces. Debate about two spaces after a period in legal writing. Sentence spacing is the space between sentences in typeset text.
A period piece addresses and answers the question of whether a period should be followed by one or two spaces, but particularly, he highlights the importance of writing, grammar, and sentence structure for lawyers andor tobe. The chicago manual of style and the ap stylebook both now cite that the convention is a single space after each, but as i first learned to type in the 1950s, i was taught that it was law to. Remember the french cant serve raspberry sorbet without shaping it into a large, frozen dahlia. How many spaces should come after a periodfull stop. There are, of course, famous judges who are adamant the. Latex sometimes puts too much or too little space after periods. After my podcast explaining why we now put one space after a period at the end of a sentence, rebecca wrote in to ask how many spaces go after a colon just as with the period, it used. There has been a style checker that would alert you. Witkowskis typing class in high school, my peers and i were taught the immutable rule of putting two spaces after a period. When type was set by hand the spacing was carefully crafted to make sentences and. If you are someone who cant break your two spaces after a period habit, have no fear. One of my facebook readers pointed out the although apa guidelines at one time reduced the required spacing after a period from two down to one, they returned. I know that you are supposed to put one space after a period if you are using a word processor, and two spaces if you are using a typewriter. One space after a comma, two spaces after a period.
I see people missing spaces in their academic writing all the time and i am not sure if i should correct this. Legalwriting nerds have been bemoaning lawyers use of two spaces after a period for years. The story of spaces after periods is often told as though monospaced typewriter fonts needed two spaces after a sentence for good readability, and that the wide availability of proportional. A period piece by jay shepherd my overlords here at atl thought it would be fun to run a poll about whether there should be one space or two after a period. If two spaces are allowed after a period, how can a typographer use findreplace to locate an instance where the writer added only a single space. Just as there is a movement to place citations of authority in briefs in footnotes to make the narrative text more easily readable, from the world of typographers comes the decree that there should be only one. I continue to use two spaces after a period when writing in a monospace font. The software giant has started to update microsoft word to highlight two spaces after a period a full stop for you brits as an error, and to offer a correction to one space. What legal professionals need to know about the changing data privacy landscape. The story of spaces after periods is often told as though monospaced typewriter fonts needed two spaces after a sentence for good readability, and that the wide availability of proportional fonts on computers led to the switch to one space. Set 2 spaces after period in word microsoft community. I plan to teach my kids never to reply to messages from. To follow up on our earlier post, titled legal writing. Increased spacing has been shown to help facilitate processing in a number of other reading studies, johnson explained to me by email, using two spaces after each period.
Sentence spacing guidance is provided in many language and style guides. I have taught myself to stop putting two spaces after a period and it. And, according to nearly all stylebooks, including the associated press stylebook and the chicago manual of style, you always use a single space after a period. Solicitor generals style guide calls out bad legal writing. Created by hugo and nebula award nominated author william shunn. Bluebook, the legal style manual, doesnt have a rule on space after periods, but defers to the chicago manual one space. Latex tries to guess whether a period ends a sentence, in which case it puts extra space after it. Sentence spacing in language and style guides wikipedia. Theres only one correct answer for whether to use one space or two spaces after a period, and its to use one space. How do i put two spaces after every period in our html. The twospacer manifesto for legal writing above the law. Ugly legal writing, see webinar american bar association.
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