One or Two Spaces after the Period? That is the Question.

Izzy the Girl

Language Arts 407

 March 18, 2011

As technology advances so does punctuation.  Like decisions of the Supreme Court, rules regarding the number of spaces after a sentence fluctuate.  Should there be one space or two spaces between sentences?  With pen and quill, we put one space between words, and one between sentences.  The exact size of a space is in the eyes of the writer, who can vary the size of their spaces at their whim.  The spaces serve their purposs—they clearly separate thoughts.  When writing by hand, one is not expected to place spaces that are the same sizes.

 Along came the type writer.  Although a godsend to human hands, it made mincemeat out of spacing.  Every letter was exactly the same size – a “w” would be as small as an “I,” an “l” as large as an “X.” So too spaces were the same size as letters, so that one space after a word looked exactly the same as one space after a sentence.  Reading became chaotic.  No one knew where one sentence ended and the next began.  It was infuriating.  The only way to appease the eye was to type two spaces between the sentences.  Readers could easily tell when a thought stopped, and another began.   Typists were taught to press the space button twice after every sentence until it became an ingrained habit.  Sentences and typing were both clear cut, and the world read in peace. 

But then the computer replaced the typewriter.  The computer is a little bit penmanship and a little bit typewriting.  The letters are not the same size; they are proportioned as if they were written.  For example, a “w” is wider than an “i” in almost all fonts.  While the letters are not equal in size, the spaces are.  Therefore there is no need to delineate between the space after a word and those after a sentence.  Educators today teach students to input one space after each sentence.  The published writing from a computer is easily read without distraction. 

For those who learned to write on the computer, it is probably not even a consideration.  But people who grew up with the typewriter had to pass a typing test by typing perfectly within a set amount time. For them, typing two spaces after a period is as natural as language itself.  It might even be as hard to quit as is  smoking.  Until these people become extinct, we will be in a transition.  It is therefore necessary to accept both forms of spacing, and leave it up to the writer to choose between typing in one or two spaces in between sentences.