I just read an article by Farhad Manjoo, the "Technology" columnist on Slate.com, about how wrong and annoying are two spaces between a period and the first letter of the next sentence. While I unequivocally agree that the Chicago Manual of Style mandates only one space be used between sentences, I, perhaps because I am a child of the manual-typewriter era, had been taught that two spaces are proper. The APA and other style guides allow for or prescribe two spaces, but the Chicago Manual of Style, the MLA style guide, and the AP style guide all maintain that one space is appropriate.
I have little confidence that I would ever change my habit, since my typing two spaces between sentences is entirely ingrained in me and is simply the natural manner in which I type. The English language is rife with agreed disagreements (viz. the use of the serial comma by nearly everyone except newspapers). Why would this be so contentious?
Also, who among us are "two-spacers"?
One space after a sentence-ending period is just plain wrong, despite all the people on the web whining about how doing it the right way is a holdover from some no-longer-relevant technology. (One of the first sites I looked at on the subject says that browsers will only put one space between sentences anyway; if you know anything about HTML, you'd know that you can put thirty spaces between words and browsers will collapse them into one space as well.)
I'll make this as simple as I can: if you only put one space after a sentence-ending period, how will your word-processor know that "I sent the test results to Mr. Smith for further review." is only one sentence?
Context, Ron, context.
Peter
tunawrites, count me in. I, too, learned to type on a manual typewriter and do the double space after a period. Thirty years of experience is not easily wiped out. Recently, I tried an online typing test to gauge my WPM. I did not notice the option to choose one or two spaces after the period. My score was terrible and I couldn't figure out why, until I spotted that little check box. Clicked it, took the test again and my numbers looked normal, at around 100 WPM. I then tried to take the test, using only one space. I failed miserably. Old dog, new tricks? Not in this case.
Me too. Me, two.
I consider the browser thing a massive bug that our language is accommodating.