Mystery Writers Forum
General Discussion and News => Writing Advice => Topic started by: scotfiddle on November 03, 2006, 08:55:58 PM
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The instructor for a writing course I'm taking keeps insisting that I only put one space between sentences. She says putting two is a leftover from the days of typewriters and any editor who sees it will be very aggravated if they have to go thru the mss and undo all the spaces.
Am I so far out of the loop that I've missed something like this? I'm not the most computer literate person in the world, so that's a possibility.
What do y'all think?
Karen
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I have no idea who came up with the new 'rule' but I was told years ago to put only one space after the period. It took a long time to get used to it. In fact, for months, I would do a 'search and replace' on documents that went up to management because the executive assistant WOULD call you on that error.
Recently, I've had the opportunity to work with a number of 'off-shore' personnel on a months-long project. They use single quotes where I'd been taught to use double quotes. As you can see from this post, it didn't take me long to adopt that particular habit. Even, horrors, to the point of putting periods and commas outside the 'quotation marks'.
But, what the hey, what's life if not change.
Joyce s
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You made me remember an internet friend of mine, Joyce.
My friend and I were going to edit each other's work. It didn't take us long to realize we weren't following the same rules. We kept finding "errors" until we realized that, since he's in England and I'm in America, the rules are different for each country.
He was using single quotes and putting the periods and commas outside the quotes. And he was changing my work to fit those rules.
And I was changing his single quotes to double quotes and putting the periods and commas inside the quotes.
Now we just edit on the content and leave the quotes and spelling and periods alone. We get along so much better that way.
Linda
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What about editing for your intended market? If you're writing for publication in the U.K., use their rules. If you're writing for publication in the U.S., likewise. The differences are way beyond quotation marks and period placement.
Chase
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I've heard the same thing, and have been given the reason that it is to save space so fewer pages have to be printed. I've never been interested enough to do the math, so I do not know if that is reasonable or an urban writer's myth. It is in common usuage now.
However, no one is going to go through your manuscript and change each one - you instructor is living in the age of typewriters - all they will do is some version of a global change if needed, which you certainly could do yourself before sending your work out.
If you are writing for a specific publishers, take a look at their output and see if it looks like one or two spaces.
Some publishers will give you a list of these things and ask you to modify your own manuscript, others set up some sort of computerized task to handle all these things, like a macro, and automatically do it to every manuscript.
Probably most important - enjoy yourself!
Elena
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Elena,
In my opinion, humble in the extreme, your answer is right on. The one space or two controversy always seemed more like a monsoon in a Mr. Coffee maker. I learned to type on a typewriter, and no matter how many times my thumb is redirected to hit the space-bar only once, it insists on a double tap.
Even the best writing instructors have glaring pet peeves. One of mine so hated exclamation points that she forbad them from any creative writing effort. I understand how annoying too many exclamations can be!!!!!!!!!! But too much in the other direction makes for unbalanced writing, too. The advice to thoroughly investigate the preferences of our publishers is best.
Chase
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I don't understand the typewriter "explanation." For me, the two spaces are there to emphasize the sentence break. My eyes still appreciate the extra space, and I find it annoying when it is missing. I'm happy to adjust for a manuscript, but IMHO, the rule should still stand.
Susan
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I'm with Susan on the spaces. Yes, I see that mostly people single-space now, but nobody has complained to me and I double-space automatically.
Keep in mind that the publisher's type-setter transfers your text anyway. And my copy-editors have never bothered to correct the spacing.
Quite right about the British quotes. Even weirder in other languages. :)
Ingrid
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I think that part of the reason for the one-space rule may be that on a computer, designers can program the exact amount of space they want after a period. The space limitation explanation makes some sense to me also; the online publisher I work for has very strict standards for how many characters I can use for my product, and spaces do count.
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Thanks for all the feedback. It's going to take me forever to get used to hitting the spacebar only once between sentences. I learned to type on a manual typewriter about a hundred years ago, so the muscle memory is highly ingrained.
A writing friend of mine, who has been involved in publishing for awhile, told me the same thing. The extra spaces add up to extra pages and publishers are all about the bottom line. I have a mss of about 30,000 words. How do I get all those extra spaces out without going sentence by sentence?
Karen
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Hi Karen,
You probably don't need to worry too much about retraining your fingers because it's super easy to fix extra spaces with a universal find and replace. If you're not familiar with it, the find-and-replace tool is usually under the edit menu, I think. When you find it, just type two spaces into the "find" field and one space in the "replace with" field. Then click on "replace all" or its equivalent. I try to do this search when I finish editing any document, even though I'm used to the one space thing, because the editing process frequently leaves behind stray extra spaces.
Good luck!
Carol
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I'm a child of the computer age and a rebel at heart. One space for me!
:o
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My last 2 publishers both specifically asked for only one space after a period. I'm not very good at remembering to do it that way though.
Kathi
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Hey Carol,
Thanks. I knew about the replace thing, but I never thought about using it for blank spaces!
I learn something new every day.
Karen
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I still use two spaces and my publisher never says a word.
Debbie
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Typesetting programs that justify type can add up to three spaces after a period. SO ONE space, is all you need in the manuscript if you don't want long "vacations" between sentences.
If you don't do it that way, your publisher will search for two paces and repace with one anyway.
It just makes it easier if they're not there to begin with. One less step from ms. to print.
arline
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Umm, I wouldn't justify. That is one rule that popped up on all the submission guidelines. Apparently it really throws off electronic transfers. And, as Arline says, it makes your text look really weird.
Ingrid
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I used to use two, like everyone old enough to remember typewriters. But one of my publishers asked me to switch to one for them, and I've done it consistently now with all my writing. Books, stories, blogs, letters...they all get one space between sentences. I found it remarkably easy to switch.
Kris