I'm trying to switch from using two periods between sentences to just one. I prefer the look of two, but I know the world is switching, and I know my OCD boss uses one (although I haven't noticed him deleting periods from my documents, which wouldn't necessarily be out of character).
To facilitate this change and to help with other issues, I've starting writing with the formatting showing in Word. Research Advisor does that, and I always thought it was super distracting. Now I'm not only turning into my mother, but also my advisor.
Can you tell I'm in writing jail?
10 comments:
Surely you mean spaces when you said periods?
Regardless of what writing guides say, I still think that two spaces between sentences just looks nicer. It spaces out sentences a little bit more and emphasizes a pause between them. Oh well, I guess I'm in the minority.
The number of spaces between sentences doesn't bug me nearly as much as seeing a run-on sentence in a scientific paper. That drives me completely batty.
I hate the one space after a period thing too, but realized you can get extra room in grant apps etc. I always leave the formatting showing...I guess I"m your advisor too :)
Hahaha! Yes I meant one space, not one period! It's because I had been looking at a document with the formatting visible and deleting double blue dots, i.e., spaces.
QV, I agree that two adds a pleasing subtle pause between sentences, but I've also had SM's experience of fitting text in a page limit by deleting the extra spaces. :)
You had me thinking that if you use two periods at the end of each sentence, surely you must be the one with OCD and not your boss!
I've finally gone with one space, mostly because I can't bother to correct everyone else's use of one space - too many corrections, not enough time.
LOL, I'm glad you clarified, because I was thinking "two periods?! Who DOES that?!"
A while ago I was directed to a post about why people should stop typing two spaces after a period (2nd article in this index - the original post isn't loading). I posted it on Facebook and Twitter, and you should have seen the arguments it caused! It's clearly a very emotive issue - and I'm firmly on Team One Space. I use find & replace to fix double spacing in all documents I edit. So keep up the good work!
I find it easier to let my fingers type the two that I have always typed, and when I am done do a search and replace to change all double spaces into a single space. I repeat that search until it says it can't find any more...
Is this a N American thing? I had NEVER ever heard of typing two spaces after a period until last week, and that was referring to the typewriter-era when 2 spaces was for some reason the way to go. Even when I learned to typewrite though, no one told me about the 2 spaces.
I always have the formatting showing in Word, and I've never noticed anyone use 2 spaces, except my PhD Prof, but that was only regularly occasionally, if you understand. Just something to do with older age, I suspected.
Sometimes I find it scary how many habits of my advisor I have adopted... glad to see I'm not the only one ;)
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