05-17-2014, 04:53 AM
Article Accelerator wrote:
[quote=ztirffritz]
I learned typing on an IBM Selectric(sp?). It was ironically in a room next to a room full of Macs. I learned to put two spaces after a period and have never heard that I'm supposed to do otherwise. What is the reasoning behind not putting the spaces? It's not like the spaces cost more or consume more electrons (OK technically they do, but I think that we can spare them). I was also taught when making a list to do as follows: item1, item2, and item3. I've been told that the ',' after '2' is not necessary by several people, but I still do it because that's how Mrs. Alexander taught us in 2nd Grade.
Mrs Alexander was correct about the Oxford comma. She was wrong about two spaces after a period.
No, she was not wrong as has been explained several times in this thread. You used two spaces with a typewriter after the end of a sentence, and you can find that in multiple style books from the period. Most persons never used typesetting equipment during that time. I did use both typesetting equipment and typewriters then, only on the typesetter was a single em-space used as opposed to en-spaces elsewhere. Now you could find style guides for some publications that used a single space to get more words on a page using a mono-spaced typeface, but they were exceptions in the US. In Europe, both single and doubled spaces were standard, it depended on the country.