Just as I was starting to write this post, I came across an article providing the definitive answer to whether or not I should use one or two spaces between sentences. (The article has changed: go here now.)
Writer Farhad Manjoo (then at Slate before moving on to The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times) provides the aggressively definitive answer to whether or not you put one or two spaces between sentences. I’ll cut it short for you: one space only, ever.
His rationale is compelling and fascinating, because it’s not just a story of aesthetics and readability, but of the convergence between old technology (typewriters) and new technology (proportional typesetting.)
And yet …
Despite all his (mostly good) arguments from typography experts, there’s one point where their argument stops: is it more readable to have two spaces instead of one? As he admits, there are no studies to prove single or double spaces are better.
I do know this. When I was younger, I always used one space. It’s what Kay Amert, my typography teacher at University of Iowa, taught us. When I get older, and am constantly searching for my reading glassess, I prefer two.
So which to use?
Like everything else on the planet, do what’s preferable to use, but perhaps also think about who you’re writing for.
Phew, I’m glad that important issue is settled. Or not. Now on to more important things, such as the Oxford comma.
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