Two space -- or not two space

[ashling]

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2011/01/space_invaders.html
[font size = 3]Space Invaders[/font size = 3]
Why you should never, ever use two spaces after a period.

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[font size = 3]You Can Have My Double Space When You Pry it From My Cold, Dead Hands[/font size = 3]
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/01/you-can-have-my-double-space-when-you-pry-it-from-my-cold-dead-hands/69592/

Consider the typical structure of writing. Letters are assembled into words, which turn into phrases, which are arranged into sentences -- at the same time being assigned to speakers, a neat trick -- which are then combined into paragraphs.

It's a chemical process, a perfect and infinitely flexible hierarchical system that should command our admiration. Being able to rationally examine, disassemble and interrogate the final product is a mark of the system's beauty. Anything less is settling for a sort of holistic mysticism.

It's disrespectful to let writing's constituent elements bleed into one another through imprecise demarcations. If you see me "making mistakes with comma placement", please rest assured that it's deliberate. In most cases the comma doesn't belong to the phrase delimited by the quotation marks that enclose it. Placing an exclamation point or question mark to the left or right of a close-quote is a weighty decision! That we violate the atomic purity of quotations with injected commas is an outrage.

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Can you tell which one I prefer? ... Can you?

[geardaddy]

1. Two spaces on a typewriter

one for word-processing software.

Case closed.

[ashling]

3. And a cold case it is

It's disrespectful to let writing's constituent elements bleed into one another through imprecise demarcations.

[Xyzse]

2. I do two spaces since that was the style way back when.

Thought that was how it was stylistically.

[RebelOne]

4. I was a typesetter and later a copy editor

for several magazines and two spaces were definitely a no-no and totally incorrect.

[NV Whino]

5. Don't get me started on this

I just finished editing another book… and removing extra spaces after periods.

And please, don't even bring up ellipses and M dashes, nor periods and commas inside quotes.

Argh!

[Tribalceltic]

6. I was taught 2 spaces after a period. Really!

I don't think I could type just one. I'll try though. Darn, still couldn't do it. It's just so automatic. There I did one. Did you see that? Darn, there I go again.

[Xyzse]

8. That's where I'm at as well actually.

[raccoon]

7. I was taught 2 spaces after a period. If anyone doesn't like it, you know what you can

do about it.

I MIGHT consider changing if other people quit using silly words like "veggies" and "selfie".