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Double Space, Double Wrong

miiitch:

Only Tumblr it’s stupid but when writing an essay or something you’re supposed to put two spaces between sentences.

No. No, no, no, a thousand times no. Putting two spaces between sentences is completely, utterly, and totally wrong. Let me explain:

Every single character you can type takes up a certain amount of space. For the entirety of the history of typography, letters have been spaced proportionally—for example, the letter i doesn’t take up as much space as the letter m. It’s just always been that way. Or it was, until the invention of the manual typewriter, which uses monospace fonts (in which every letter takes up exactly the same amount of space). Using a monospace font makes it difficult to distinguish spaces in between sentences (since there are so many gaps in between letters) so people began using two spaces. Even though the typewriter is a thing of the past, some people (a huge, ridiculous number of people) can’t kick the habit.

Unless you are using a manual typewriter or a monospace font, there is only ever one space between sentences. MLA and APA both recommend one space. Typographers (the people who study type and get to make these kinds of decisions) say one space.

I promise, it’s one space.

EXACTLY.

Commentmiiitch • 12 January 24th '12
  1. heyitsrachel reblogged this from miiitch
  2. likeliterallydead reblogged this from miiitch and added:
    Wait, more simply and less pedantic: people used to put two spaces because typewriters are actually kind of terrible...
  3. jessesaysit said: MLA used to require two spaces, but changed the rules about 5 years ago and now only requires one space. I edit papers a lot and this is still a common mistake, meaning kids still learn the two-space rule in high school, which annoys me.
  4. nightofreason said: PREACH.
  5. phrankiesays said: Amen.
  6. miiitch posted this