Random Rambling

One space or two?

A wonderful woman that I work with just asked me this question... when ending a sentence, do I use one space or two? "Two, of course!" was my reply. She proceeds to tell me that the "younger people" in the office all use only one space at the end of a sentence. She was so concerned about this that she came to my office to ask me what I do, and then she went on to describe how she had just gone through her most recent documentation to remove the extra space at the end of her sentences!

"No! It's totally supposed to be two spaces," I tell her. "Use two spaces, or a full stop, after colons and periods (and exclamation points and question marks) and one space after commas and semicolons. That's the way I was taught."

Fast forward through about 10 minutes of back-and-forth reasoning and we begin SCOURING the Internet looking for the "right" way to space after a full stop. As it turns out, two spaces is the old-fashioned way to separate sentences within a paragraph. OLD FASHIONED?!?!? Yes, ladies and gentlemen, OLD FASHIONED. Apparently, I am a prescriptivist, which means that I, "...adhere to the earlier use of two spaces on typewriters to make the separation of sentences more salient than separation of elements within sentences." Even The Chicago Manual of Style says I'm ancient!

Ugh... I'm sure that before we know it the nice folks over at Webster will be adding the non-word "irregardless" to the dictionary. My English and typing teachers' bodies are probably tingling in disgust as I type this. Mrs. Shriver and Ms. Barlamas, I promise to always double space at the end of a sentence! Even if web editors strip the extra space, they're still there in spirit!