While my good friend from More Books and Things and another really nice blogger from Oleh Musings were getting into a very friendly and non offending creation vs evolution debate, (is there such a thing?) it was obvious however, that neither were going to change each others mind. (topic is closed now 
)
I had another life changing debate happening at my house. Truly earth shattering stuff — my jaw actually dropped and I am not joking — as I was horrified to learn that there were people out there who didn’t think like me. I was truly stunned!
The Scenario
The other night I was helping a friend with his resume. While he was typing I noticed that he only used on space afte a full stop! I have always used two. That was the way I was taught when I learnt how to touch-type on a manual typwriter.
This of course led to a huge debate in my home, with my hubby even ringing his brother who majored in History and English and is currently a teacher. His brother said that you only use one space!!! What? My hubby is with me on this one, I am a two spacer, he was told to use two spaces in the RAAF when writing documents. All the young ones in the house had never heard of the two space before! They were equally shocked that you could even consider two spaces.
What? Hah Hahahahah (insert self righteous laugh here) ….. They just have not been taught properly… the education system has gone to the dogs, I thought to myself! The guy doing the resume is currently at University and has never been corrected by his lecturer on his heretical irreverent one space.
Shock, horror.
Anyway, I have decided to put this to a poll … this life shattering debate.
Here it is.
I also have a new ‘Poll Section’ in the sidebar to the right. That will be updated as I think of more things that need popular opinion to win a debate. But remember, might is not always right!
Haha! I will do the poll, but I need to know exactly… by two spaces after a full stop, do you mean after a sentence? Or after a paragraph?
Sorry if that’s a dumb question.
Oh yes, and I’m glad you enjoyed our friendly debate.
Ok… after a sentence. I think you would call a full stop a period. Right?
Right. Gotcha. So as I sit here and type I automatically am only doing one. So I think 2 spaces must be an Australian tradition, do ya think???
My mum’s English and she was taught two spaces when she learnt to type.
I am confused! When I look at your post, it looks like you are only using one space after each full stop.
Anyway, I also have an English degree, and I have only ever had one space after a full stop.
Aaah, I know why there is only one space after your full stops V! Because on the internet, html coding ignores too much white space, so even though you must be putting in two spaces after each full stop, the formatting is ignoring it! HAHAHAHA!
Ok… html ignores double spaces.
I feel discriminated against.
You should sue somebody. This is blatant discrimination. Double spacers have rights too!
I guess I’ll drop my 10 agorot here (that’s about 2 cents US, at current exchange rates), as a professional writer….
Two spaces is standard in American usage; one space is more common in British usage, and is standard in French usage. One space after a period (full stop, to you Brits/Aussies/Kiwis/S Africans) is sometimes called ‘French spacing.’
Both are equally correct; whichever a writer chooses can be purely idiosyncratic. What is important is to be consistent within a document.
Vee, you said:
a very friendly and non offending creation vs evolution debate, (is there such a thing?)
Of course it is possible, as long as both parties approach each other with respect, and avoid denigrating each other’s person and opinions. We closed the topic by mutual consent, to avoid going back and forth more or less forever…
And I must say it was wonderful to see. It is obvious that there was respect from both sides. Well done!
~smiles~
Ugh. I have started my police academy training and we have been learning to “write” all week; long, handwritten memorandums….excellent training for report wrtiting. I wish I had a bit more time to respond to this, but I have homework to do now!
Just thought I’d pop by and say hey.
One space or two are equally correct. But I will just throw in now that 2 spaces in totally an old people thing. Hahaha!
What are you saying Sarah? That your aunt is OLD!!!
Well, I did say that I learnt to type on a manual typewriter.
I remember that to center a title you had to count how many spaces within the tabs or margins, then count how many letters and spaces within your title.
So if you had 70 spaces within your tabs/margins you had to half it to 35 spaces. Then, if you had 10 letters and spaces within your title then you had to half it to 5.
Then you had go to the beginning of the left side of the page and press the space bar 35 times to get to the middle of the page. Then because you were at the center of the page you had to backspace 5 spaces to begin to type the title.
If there was no perfect middle, the you had to favour the left by one backspace.
No wonder I’m hung up about spaces
This was all done after you had taken dictation down in pitmans shorthand, which is like learning a new language!
And that was state of the art!
I’m not old… am I ???
Tragic.
You never know when that stone-age skill might come in handy, Vee. I learned on a manual type writer too. We had to have strong pinky fingers. When the keys of those thirty typewriters were pounded, the whole floor vibrated. You could even hear when there was a typing class from the gym below. Kind of like those Stomp broadway performances. And then there was the ding when you got to the end of a line and had to hit the return handle.Ah yes…the smell of white- out…the changing of the ribbon…the crumpling of your nearly completed page everytime you make a mistake…the screams of frustration…the counting of spaces, spaces and more spaces until you were spaced out…compare that to today’s whimpy keyboard sounds of click click click, where all the calculations are done for you.
I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
~That nostaligic moment in time was for the benefit of Sarah.~
I have a love hate relationship with technology. When everything works it is great, but it it doesn’t I want to scream!
Hey Ed… you still haven’t given your answer
I have been keeping you in my prayers. I am really glad you popped in to let us know that you are around.
Take care my friend
Well, I think two spaces are neater in appearance, but I never do it. And I write a lot. Well, not as much for the time being; at least not creatively.
Thank you for your prayers, V, they are most appreciated