In middle school “technology skills” class, we were instructed to always type two spaces after a period or question mark (exclamation mark usage was strictly forbidden—such emotive punctuation is too easy to abuse…). This double-space rule had been around since Guttenberg, but it really came into fashion during the middle of the twentieth century to accommodate the monospaced fonts (used by all those darling Selectric II’s featured on Mad Men.) Now that the civilized, digitalized world has access to the likes of iPads and Times New Roman, the powers that be have declared the double-space rule archaic and unconscionably decadent: sentences are to adapt to the austere world order and learn to make do with half the personal space to which they were previously accustomed.
While this new/old single-space rule may be economical, it is an affront to the autonomy of the sentence. When we refuse to allow for difference between the amount of space that separates words and the amount of space that separates sentences, the backs of our brains start to categorize sentences as mere “collections-of-words.” The sentence’s status as a unit of language unto itself needs careful guarding against assimilation into the visually homogenous world of the copy editor’s “ideal text.”
We must also recognize the psychological benefits engendered by the act of doubling down on the space bar. A blank page causes writers to feel panic, despair, and the urge to google “law school admissions requirements.” Doubling down on the space bar with our thumbs (those glorious, opposable appendages responsible for allowing us to overtake dolphins in the evolutionary race) reassures us that we are indeed moving perpetually forward, that the end of the page is actually much closer than it looks, and we can get there while giving our sentences enough room to stretch out their legs.
I love this, even though I disagree with Daniela. You know what gives sentences their room to breath, to exist as “a unit of language unto itself?” A goddamned period, that’s what.
My disagreement likely comes down to that I was never taught to double space after sentences, so the whole thing seems foreign to me.
I have to disagree with you. When a period had the same kerning as every other letter on the page, double spaces were necessary to give the eye a break and to help delineate sentence endings. Otherwise the text became a gray block and was more difficult to read. The reason modern word processing does not and should not use double spaces is that individual letter spacing is built into the kerning tables for each typeface. If the type designer wanted two-spaces worth of every space after a period, they would simply make one space take up more room.
Sentences are rarely autonomous. One letter leads to a word which leads to a sentence which leads to a paragraph. A paragraph, by definition, is one thought. We are rarely able to complete thoughts in single sentences. They become isolated fragments whose meaning is ambiguous. Subtlety, clarity and nuance of communication is achieved through multiple sentences contextualizing each other and giving greater shades of meaning to the thought or thoughts as a whole.
Justifying double spacing as a relief from anxiety is a mental-health issue beyond my purview.
Barry, You’re right, we do have the period to help distinguish between words and sentences, but I feel like the period is not enough. It’s too tiny–it barely takes up half a space.
I also think that most people’s feelings about the double-space rule are tied to how they were taught. People who were raised to be single-spacers do not want/are not able to be converted into double-spacers and vice-versa. I tried for a good year or so to make myself only use one space in between sentences and I just. couldn’t. do. it.
“If the type designer wanted two-spaces…” And how do we know the type designer wants or expects from us? Might not the type designer take into account that many of us will continue to use the double space rule with little regard for kerning tables (whatever those are)? I’m jus’ sayin’, we can’t assume to know the designer’s intent based on our own analysis of the design.
I love this Daniela, and I agree with it. (See? Two spaces.) The double space is beautiful. It makes me feel as if my sentences are skipping, rather than plodding, even if they are doing neither, even if they’re tiptoeing or something. Anyway. Double spaces forever.
This website most likely doesn’t recognize the double space and reduces each double space to a single. To test a theory:
Sentence. Space.
Sentence. Space.
Now let’s hit submit and see if they look the same.
Huzzah!
Sentence. Space.
Sentence. Space.
What’s that old adage about computers?
Only as smart as the…?
Couldn’t it be feasible that one’s choice of spacing after periods is contingent on the medium/mode of writing itself (email/blog/facebook/print, formality/informality, poems/stories/notes, etc)–or based on some rule of consistency?
Also, there was an interesting article in Slate (1.13.11) about double spacing after periods (http://www.slate.com/id/2281146/).
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