Originally written by Nanna Mercer on February 21, 2008 5:53 PM   People have lost fortunes and even been put to death because of imprecise punctuation involving semicolons in legal papers.

See also Post #135200 on the comma war.

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In her description of the translation process, Lucja Biel (http://accurapid.com/journal/44freelancer.htm) points out that as part of the quality assurance the translator should

from her translation.

Right. However, there are still organizations, believe it or not, that use double spacing after a period (full stop to Brits). Originally, those who learned typing on typewriters, at least in the United States, were taught to use two spaces after a sentence-ending period for a better readability, to help people distinguish between sentence-ending periods and abbreviation-ending periods, etc. With word processors these considerations are gone, however see a discussion of this at http://www.painintheenglish.com/post.php?id=68:

Also: "Because it is increasingly common for papers and manuscripts to be prepared with a single space after all punctuation marks, this spacing is shown in the examples in the MLA Handbook and the MLA Style Manual. As a practical matter, however, there is nothing wrong with using two spaces after concluding punctuation marks unless an instructor or editor requests that you do otherwise." http://www.mla.org/style/style_faq/style_faq3 (via http://archivist.incutio.com/viewlist/css-discuss/80607)

Otherwise, like Lucja, I only find recommendations on the Web for the use of a single space after all punctuation marks, e.g.: "Double spaces date back to the days of typewriters, when all characters were allotted the same amount of space. Computerized typesetting adjusts the spacing for a good fit. Extra spaces create gaps and look unprofessional." http://www.utexas.edu/visualguidelines/punctuation.html

Jacek

Back to

Has modern life killed the semicolon?

http://www.slate.com/id/2194087/

Yes, and what do you do when the source has double spacing?

I usually remove the double spacing, but I always have an uneasy feeling that I am in the wrong.

Nanna 

Originally written by Jacek Krankowski on April 3, 2008 3:19 PM http://www.painintheenglish.com/post.php?id=68: For all of you haters of the double-space after a full-stop, I hate to tell you that I am writing a style guide for my organization that will include it as a rule. We create very formal documents. To ensure the documents are as intelligible as possible, we will use two spaces. I do not care what font you use. Laziness is acceptable in today's culture many places, but I will not allow it in the documents I edit. We also use 1-inch margins instead of the MS Word default of 1.25 inches because we need to fit as much information into as little space as possible while not neglecting our need to be as succinct as possible.

Interesting that someone who is obviously very much against ‘laziness’ would nonetheless write a style guide that codifies what is originally itself a sign of laziness: the double-space.

Were he interested in maintaining optimal intelligibility and readability in his organisation’s “very formal documents”, he should codify the usage of the character the double-space is a lazy typewriter workaround for: the em space.

Then again, he does seem to refer to Microsoft Word as a guiding line or standard for page layout, so I’d say his blather can be dismissed fairly easily.

Link inserted by the moderator

Thanks Nanna for inserting that link. I saw it at the same time.

It points to a statement by a (Scott | Aug-7-07 1:28PM) in the discussion at http://www.painintheenglish.com/post.php?id=68:

Originally written by Jacek Krankowski on April 3, 2008 3:19 PM http://www.painintheenglish.com/post.php?id=68: For all of you haters of the double-space after a full-stop, I hate to tell you that I am writing a style guide for my organization that will include it as a rule. We create very formal documents. To ensure the documents are as intelligible as possible, we will use two spaces. I do not care what font you use. Laziness is acceptable in today's culture many places, but I will not allow it in the documents I edit. We also use 1-inch margins instead of the MS Word default of 1.25 inches because we need to fit as much information into as little space as possible while not neglecting our need to be as succinct as possible.

It is certainly important for people who use the quote feature here on TC to check the post they are quoting and make sure that internal citations and references are not deleted.

Jeff

My apologies. In my eager to make the quoted message shorter, I must accidentally have chopped off a line too many—and then my post appeared at the top of a new page, further breaking whatever continuity there was!

Originally written by Janus Jacquet  the double-space is a lazy typewriter workaround for: the em space.

Even assuming that the double-space developed as a substitute for the em space (source?), I don't see why such a development is necessarily a "lazy" one.  Instead, it could be seen as a matter of efficiency.  Was the development of moveable type a lazy workaround for copying books by hand?

Regardless of its historical origins, I think the double space serves a valuable function, as it helps to clearly demarcate sentences, which theoretically are self-contained, if inter-related, ideas.

It was funny, Jeff, for I read the words supposedly attributed to Jacek and thought, "Hmn...does he really think that?" and I hurried to check.

And as for you, Janus...you will be hung or hanged (whichever) at dawn.

Nanna

Pardon my ignorance, but what, pray tell, is an m-space?  I have always used two spaces after a period or question mark.  When did that change, and why?  How can it be lazy to hit the space bar twice instead of once, since it's twice as much work?

Confused,;:?

Maxi