Spaces between sentences

Two spaces after a period is just plain incorrect. The only reason that you would hit the space bar twice after a period when using an old-fashioned manual typewriter is because that uses fixed-width characters. When you're using a computer, or a modern electronic typewriter, the size of the space will be sufficient if you just hit it once.

http://www.webword.com/reports/period.html

That link should help to clear up any remaining confusion. It's entirely standard to use one space after a period, and there is a very good reason.

It just took a long while for this to become widely accepted and known. So basically when you've been tought two use two spaces, that's just because the person who tought you still has the old habit from using a typewriter.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Leknaat

That doesn't make it incorrect--just outdated.

I'll grudgingly acknowledge the distinction between those two. However, I maintain that if you are writing in a professional context it would be incorrect, by means of being outdated. When writing in a more personal context, it is unimportant if you employ outdated styles. I'd also argue that the very fact that most web browsers will convert a double space following a period to a single implies that there is a general acceptance of the former convention as being incorrect.

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I STILL hit the space bar twice when I type because that's how I was taught. I'm 38 years old, and I learned in grade school to hit the bar twice. This practice continued in high school when I took *gasp* a typing course.

When I was in high-school and took a typing course, I was also tought to hit the space bar twice following a period. It is still eminently the correct thing to do when using a manual typewriter or an older electronic. typewriter. If you were primarily instructed on the basics of typing using such a device, then you were instructed correctly.

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In addition, we had computers to write papers on, and our teachers NEVER told us to stop typing that way.

In my opinion, that would be because your teachers were unaware of the differences between typing using a computer and typeing using a computer. That's because it took a while after the introduction of the computer word processor for the change in conventions to become generally accepted.

Teachers aren't perfect. What they tought you was how they had been trained. It's not realistic to expect them to know every detail of any recent changes to the generally accepted style guidelines. At the time when you were in school, it would have been a very recent change. It may even have been a change that was still to come. The earliest computer word processors may not have exhibited this behaviour. Modern ones do.

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Oh, and people do realize that there are people who prefer using a typewriter and not a computer, right?

Modern electronic typewriters also insert the correct size of space with only a single press of the spacebar. There may be people who prefer using a manual typewriter, of course, and for them it would be correct to hit the space bar twice. The correct convention depends on the device you are using to produce your typescript.

There's nowhere I can't reach.