atw: Re: Extra spacing after full stop
- From: "Warren Lewington" <wjlewington@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2008 12:56:15 +1100
Oh, look you know, I flit between the two types. I see the option as another
tool in my repertoire to make life easier for those reading the
documentation.
Sometimes I find it helps in certain types of technical documentation that
will require skimming for titbits or portions of information; you know, a
sentence amongst many about a particular configuration setting, that an
engineer may want to know or refresh their memory about.
Two spaces helps separate sentence beginnings from title case wording mid
sentence. I have found slight - no, 'subtle' is a better choice -
differences in the response people have to one or two spaced sentence starts
in sample paragraphs at times. This is especially the case where there is a
plethora of title cased wording forced into paragraphs by company policy
about naming things. Two spaces also helps to differentiate sentence starts
when certain fonts have periods that are vague on-screen and or have printed
badly.
So do what seems best. Two spaces can be set as default on MS Word and maybe
you should defer to that? Mainly the trick is to be consistent about it. I
will go as far to say that you may decide to use two spaces in one section
and not in other sections of a document. The "rules" (which pedants on this
list try to hide behind btw - demonstrating their own personality
deficiencies more than their technical knowledge) say you should only use
one space.
I defer to the Chicago Manual of Style regularly, but it is a guideline, not
necessarily the absolute.
Hey, does it really matter?
wjlewington@xxxxxxxxxx
WJL Consulting.
PO Box 404,
Liverpool, NSW
Australia, 1871
www.wjl.com.au <http://www.wjl.com.au/>
Phone/facsimile: +61 2 9876 5345
Mobile/cell phone: +61 0408 612 752
-----Original Message-----
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Rhonda Bracey
Sent: Friday, 18 January 2008 18:14
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: Extra spacing after full stop
I just did a Google search for "one space or two" and got some 11,000
hits... so there's plenty out there to support whichever way you go.
As you noted, Chicago says one, and the Australian Style Manual (6th
edition, p117) also recommends a single space after punctuation such as
commas and full stops--they insist on it after colons and semicolons.
If your organisation is using Word, you can get the 'double space' users to
set Word so that it converts two spaces after punctuation in to one (in Word
2003 go to Tools > Options > Spelling & Grammar tab, then click Settings in
the Grammar section and change the settings in the "Require" group; you can
also force a serial comma this way too).
This question goes around almost all tech writing lists every few years and
invariably results in list wars, so be warned...
Rhonda
Rhonda Bracey
rhonda.bracey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.cybertext.com.au <http://www.cybertext.com.au/>
AuthorIT Certified Consultant
_____
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of O'Connor, Deirdre
[Beacon Technology]
Sent: Friday, 18 January 2008 4:01 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Extra spacing after full stop
Can anyone provide a yes/no answer to the question of whether extra spacing
between sentences should/shouldn't be used in Manual/Guideline/Standard type
documentation? I find many professionals use two spaces after each full stop
and as a Technical Writer this bothers me. After researching it (Chicago
Manual of Style and various Google pages) I have found that it is not
correct practice.
Chicago Manual of Style:
"2.12 Line spacing and word spacing
For the hard copy, the entire text and, if possible, all extracts, notes,
bibliography, index, and other material should be vertically double-spaced.
A single character space, not two spaces, should be left after periods at
the ends of sentences (both in manuscript and in final, published form) and
after colons."
I am writing up a Formatting Guide for my company and I would like to state
that extra spacing should not be used as common practice but I would just
like any other opinions/facts on this please.
Thanks.
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