Only One Space? For Realz?

Did you know you only need to put ONE space following a period at the end of a sentence? Times have changed my friends from the typewriter days! Here I am reading away and thinking, "They only put one space.... they need another space at the end of their sentence.... goodness aren't they teaching kids anything these days?" A short time later I happened upon something (I don't even recall now what it was) that led me to believe something may be amiss.  So I went to two trusted resources,  my daughter and Grammar Girl, where they both had the same story.    

Here's a snippet of what Grammar Girl had to say:  (click here to read her entire post)  

Two Spaces After a Period? The Old Way

Here's the deal: Most typewriter fonts are what are called monospaced fonts. That means every character takes up the same amount of space. An "i" takes up as much space as an "m," for example. When using a monospaced font, where everything is the same width, it makes sense to type two spaces after a period at the end of a sentence to create a visual break. For that reason, people who learned to type on a typewriter were taught to put two spaces after a period at the end of a sentence. 

One Space After a Period? The New Way

But when you're typing on a computer, most fonts are proportional fonts, which means that characters are different widths. An "i" is more narrow than an "m," for example, and putting extra space between sentences doesn't do anything to improve readability.

Although how many spaces you use is ultimately a style choice, using one space is by far the most widely accepted and logical style. The Chicago Manual of Style (1), the AP Stylebook (2), and the Modern Language Association (3) all recommend using one space after a period at the end of a sentence. Furthermore, page designers have written in begging me to encourage people to use one space because if you send them a document with two spaces after the periods, they have to go in and take all the extra spaces out.

I know it's a hard habit to break if you were trained to use two spaces, but if you can, give one space a try.

I love that this world is always changing.  How refreshing!  The next thing you know we won't have cords on our telephones.  Oh wait...