atw: Re: Old habits

I am using them in one text heavy and long document at the moment, for a bit
extra white space. Makes a slight difference to the reader. I have no
preference either way though.

 

Regards;

Warren

 

From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Stephen Nason
Sent: Tuesday, 28 October 2008 15:57
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: Old habits

 

I still use double spaces between sentences.  They have some very sensible
and robust uses that are still relevant today.  

 

They can avoid misinterpretation of the text if the full stop goes missing
in action (can happen during printing, photocopying etc.).  Some sentences
without a full stop between them can run together disparate meanings or make
the double sentence confounding.  The extra space can signal to the reader
where the break was supposed to be (and to give readers some credit (a
rarity on this forum it seems), anyone who can read the text would be smart
enough to work it out).

 

The move away from double spaces was contemporary with the trend to remove
full stops after abbreviations etc. (eg, Dr. becomes Dr).  Fair enough, but
in an imperfect world double spaces between sentences can have
comprehensional utility.

 

Cheers,

 

Steve

 

 

 

 

 

________________________________________________________
On 28/10/2008, Kathy Bowman <Kathy.Bowman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: 
A lot of the documents I have seen lately have double spaces between
sentences. Are they making a comeback, or am I just dealing with dinosaurs? 
cheers 
Kath

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