gdgrana: (sokka speechless)
David ([personal profile] gdgrana) wrote2009-01-29 01:17 pm
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Mind = blown

How many of you knew that having two spaces after a full stop is technically incorrect?

I didn't, and shame on you for never correcting me. Even never having read my sentences is a poor excuse.

(My God, this is going to be a hard habit to break D:)
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[identity profile] tiffuchan.livejournal.com 2009-01-29 06:33 pm (UTC)(link)
o.O wait, what? I'm confused.

[identity profile] david-grana.livejournal.com 2009-01-29 06:50 pm (UTC)(link)
At the end of a sentence with a period (a.k.a., a full stop), you're not technically supposed to place two spaces before the next one.

[identity profile] tiffuchan.livejournal.com 2009-01-29 07:08 pm (UTC)(link)
...Seriously?

EVERYTHING I KNOW IS WRONG T_T
ursamajor: Tajel on geeks (geeks: love them)

[personal profile] ursamajor 2009-01-29 06:37 pm (UTC)(link)
It only became true once people switched over to computers, and typographers designed fonts that didn't require a two-space ... well, space (especially once we got away from using monospaced fonts), *and* that web browsers strip double spaces at least since HTML 2.0 (~1996 or so? they've been doing that since I got on the net.). It's a moderately recent development; my typing class in 1992 was taught on computers, and double-spacing between the end of a sentence and the start of a new one was still standard then.

ursamajor is a total typography dork

[identity profile] hyounpark.livejournal.com 2009-01-29 06:41 pm (UTC)(link)
No further comment necessary.

Obviously,
Hyoun
ursamajor: people on the beach watching the ocean (Default)

Re: ursamajor is a total typography dork

[personal profile] ursamajor 2009-01-29 06:46 pm (UTC)(link)
*snicker* Oh, honey. I'm a total AMATEUR when it comes to typography. I'm just a geek in general and an infovore ;)

Anyway, Wikipedia has some interesting background which makes sense - didn't realize single-spacing was fairly normal as early as the 50s in professional typesetting situations such as magazine publishing. But it was really the rise of desktop publishing that's mostly killed double-spacing.
Edited 2009-01-29 18:47 (UTC)

[identity profile] david-grana.livejournal.com 2009-01-29 06:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I was taught typing...er, 'round 1994, I believe, and we were still doing the double-space thing. I suppose the instructors - learned as they were on typewriters - have had trouble shaking it off.

[identity profile] mbouloukoue.livejournal.com 2009-01-29 06:55 pm (UTC)(link)
It helps that official MLA style didn't change over to the single-space method until very recently, and even then, it allows for both. I tried to break the habit, but I gave up.
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