Current Events > Were you taught to put one space or two spaces after a period?

(+) Yeah! (+)

two space. that is what we got taught in middle school and in college. I converted to one space years ago since that is the style where I work.

There are people who put two spaces after a period? Wha?

Why this thing?

bsp77 posted...

It was more of a typewriter thing

Oh....now it makes more sense it was past my time...

I was taught two, and always did two until just a few years ago. Seems like a lot of places where I posted would just format it to be one space once posted, so I just said "fuck it".

My mom swears by two. I don't have the time for that nonsense and go by one.

One

Two, and I do two. Basically a force of habit already, though now I'm wondering what kids are taught in school nowadays...

I was taught one space wtf

If two is the correct one, then why Game FAQs autocorrect it into one space?

One. I had no idea 2 was a thing.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

This is me right now. Doesn't look right

I was taught two. I may have unconsciously went to one space over time though.

They tried to teach us two in elementary school. That didn't stick, I always thought it was dumb, and by middle school no one said that anymore.

Ricemills posted...

If two is the correct one, then why Game FAQs autocorrect it into one space?

Because HTML ignores consecutive whitespace and their parser is not smart enough to convert characters to preserve user-entered consecutive spaces.

Noone ever taught me anything, I always used one space.
Too bad they didn't teach people to press enter here and there.

Taught two, use two.

tankboy posted...

Because HTML ignores consecutive whitespace and their parser is not smart enough to convert characters to preserve user-entered consecutive spaces.

Press X to doubt.
Even real life prints used one space.

To me this is just standard American issue.
They have been taught wrong, then they continue teaching it wrong to next generation.

Ricemills posted...

Press X to doubt.

I'm sorry, you are doubting that HTML ignores consecutive whitespace? That's pretty easy to verify.

Was taught 2 spaces, did 2 spaces until not too long ago. Now just a simple 1 spacer.

One. I think I was taught two at some point and completely forgot until this topic

Two spaces is indeed a relic from when typewriters were used. Typewriters produce monospace characters, which means every character takes up the same amount of space on the page. Two spaces helps to break things up visually so it's easier see where new sentences start.

Modern computers most of the time use proportional fonts. Character widths vary depending on the character and the fonts are designed to be perfectly readable with just one space at the end of sentences.

https://www.instructionalsolutions.com/blog/one-space-vs-two-after-period

Taught 2 spaces, mostly use 1 now.

2 and 2

I do page layout for my company's various annual reports and it's honestly shocking to me how many people still do two spaces. I learned how to type in the 90s and even back then we were told two spaces was a typewriter thing.

And yes, I do fix all of them

Ricemills posted...

Press X to doubt.
Even real life prints used one space.

To me this is just standard American issue.
They have been taught wrong, then they continue teaching it wrong to next generation.

No, it's not just an American thing. As has been explained, it's a holdover from typewriters. But the people that were taught to do that, learned it decades ago. It's not being passed down to future generations.

In my schools, we were taught to use one space after a period and my son's school is the same.

I never heard of someone putting two spaces after a period. That is just weird to me

Taught to use two spaces. I've adapted to using just one space.

Two spaces after a period.
Five spaces indentation for a new paragraph.

Double space is not recommended by anyone these days, not even the style guide APA that came up with it because of monospaced typewriters.

Other then the very basics of touch typing, all grammer was just tought via traditional handwriting back when I was in school.

Taught 2

Only do 1 now because, well, literally everything they taught me about writing in school is 100% dead wrong, so I'm assuming this is also.

Related:

If your first sentence/paragraph just lists the paragraphs that follow, your writing is crap and school taught you wrong.

If you use "it is" instead of "it's", your writing is crap and school taught you wrong.

If your conclusion just lists the paragraphs that came before, your writing is crap and school taught you wrong.

Literally just forget everything school taught you about writing, because it's crap and wrong.