spaces

[Scott Holstad <sholstad -at- CORP -dot- EARTHLINK -dot- NET>]

While I'll grudgingly admit that Michael Christie may be right in the
comment "In the world of desktop publishing one space is normally..." the
correct ending word should not be "correct," but rather "used."  As in, one
space is typically *used*.  However, while the Microsoft Manual of Style
backs his position, I can find nothing in Chicago to back this up.  If
anyone can, I'd appreciate seeing it.

Those of us who have come from an academic background and have extensively
used the MLA style manual know that two spaces are the only acceptable
alternative in that format.

APA argues for one space.  Jack Lynch's (an English professor with
Rutgers-Newark, Ph.D. from U of Pennsylvania) Style Guide
(http://www.english.upenn.edu/~jlynch/Grammar/p.html) states "put two
spaces after a (sentence-ending) period, exclamation point, or question
mark."


One key point to remember is that there is no universally agreed upon
technical communication style guide.  People in the field are making up
their own, using existing guides, combining methods, et cetera.  The point
being, Michael is partially correct -- one space is common -- but it's not
written in stone, and therefore the debate is far from over.  I guess I
can't shake my MLA roots -- I go for two spaces.  I think it's much
"cleaner," if nothing else.

Scott Holstad



At 10:54 AM 8/12/98 -0700, Marcy Harbut wrote:
>
>
>HA!
>
>
>
>>X-Persona: <techwr-l>
>>Date:         Wed, 12 Aug 1998 10:54:56 -0700
>>Reply-To: Michael Christie <Michael_C2 -at- VERIFONE -dot- COM>
>>Sender: "Technical Writers List; for all Technical Communication issues"
>>              <TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU>
>>From: Michael Christie <Michael_C2 -at- VERIFONE -dot- COM>
>>Subject:      Re: spaces
>>Comments: To: Shaun McNamara <smcnamar -at- BBNPLANET -dot- COM>
>>To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
>>
>>Two spaces is a relic from the days of typesetting. In the world of desktop
>>publishing one space is normally considered correct.
>>
>>Mike
>>
>>Mike Christie
>>Senior Information Developer
>>VeriFone, Inc.
>>MikeC -at- verifone -dot- com
>>408 919-5729
>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Shaun McNamara [SMTP:smcnamar -at- BBNPLANET -dot- COM]
>>> Sent: Wednesday, August 12, 1998 10:36 AM
>>> To:   TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
>>> Subject:      spaces
>>>
>>> Hello all,
>>>
>>> I recently got into a debate about using two spaces or one space after a
>>> period in a Word document, being told to use only one space.
>>
>>
>>From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000==
>>



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Scott C. Holstad                        email: sholstad -at- earthlink -dot- net
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 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=