One Space After Period

But what if you want two spaces after a period.

One space after period. The story of spaces after periods is often told as though monospaced typewriter fonts needed two spaces after a sentence for good readability and that the wide availability of proportional fonts on computers led to the switch to one space. But if a closing quotation mark immediately follows any one of these marks don t insert a space between the two marks. There s only one correct answer for whether to use one space or two spaces after a period and it s to use one space. A long running debate over whether there should be one or two spaces has been met with both excitement and criticism.

The point is it s not only widely accepted it s expected that you use only one space after a period. The mla handbook for writers of research papers mla waffles. Sorry two spaces it s time to make the switch. The new rule is one space after a period.

Here s how that looks in american english. Microsoft word will reportedly flag two spaces after the period as a default grammatical error in changes that are supposedly rolling out now. Go ahead and debate me but there s only one reason why the two space rule came into existence. Microsoft word will begin flagging two spaces after a period as an error.

Simply write as you always would with two spaces and when you are finished got to the toolbar of your word processing program click edit find replace and then choose to replace all double spaces with single. If you are someone who can t break your two spaces after a period habit have no fear. As a general rule put one space after a period comma colon semicolon question mark or exclamation point. Science has definitively found that two spaces after a period in typed text provides the most efficient reading experience for.

Since either way can be considered correct depending on the audience you re writing for the right answer seems to be to err on the side of caution and give that space bar a single tap. It s because of this outdated technology called a typewriter. Adding 2 spaces after a period added too much space between sentences. The nation was rocked this week by a paradigm shattering study.

However the modern language association style center offers different advice and suggests that writers use a single space after a period unless they have been explicitly told otherwise. Quick tip for those who use two spaces. Interestingly all examples mla presents in their guide use just one space and it states that most publishers guides recommend one space.