atw: Re: Extra spacing after full stop
- From: "Christine Kent" <christine_kent@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2008 18:23:50 +1100
There was a whole bunfight a few months back about this – check the
archives.
I would like to answer – do what you think looks best and b***** the rules,
but I know I will get howled down for that.
One space is technically correct. As justification, you will be quoted lots
of stuff about the old rules being for typewriters, and lots of stuff about
proportional fonts etc, but I would say, print a dense paragraph with one
space, and print the same dense paragraph with two spaces, and make up your
own mind. If your text is left justified, there is no contest as far as I
am concerned - two spaces is easier to read than one. If it is left and
right justified, it might be up for debate.
Who gets to make the rules anyway? Does God write the Chicago Manual of
Style – now that would be a problem, an American as God!
So you are safe to state one space if you want to be compliant. But do you
really want to start making and enforcing rules about something so trivial?
Do you want to put all your “two spacers” off side? Be warned, if you do
what Rhonda has just suggested, we can get really nasty about it, and you
may regret your temerity! Is it worth starting WWIII (or should that be IV)
over? And once a “two-spacer” has decided to thumb their nose at that
rule, and set Word back to where they want it, well, that’s the beginning of
the end isn’t it? Non-compliance creeps in and then where will you be?
Heaven forbid, you might even get writers using conjunctions at the start of
a sentence, then you know “the end is nigh”.
You should really be asking, who reads a style guide anyway and how can you
get anyone at all to follow one, ever? You do it by keeping it as short and
simple as possible and only including things that are critical to corporate
look and feel, and readability. One or two spaces is not exactly critical.
My advice – ignore it. No-one else will notice or care.
ck
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of O'Connor, Deirdre
[Beacon Technology]
Sent: Friday, 18 January 2008 5:56 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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