QT 9 – A Period Drama

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QT 9 – Video Transcript and Bonus Info

Hey everyone, it’s 2-Minute Tuesday and another QuickTake with Cate on all things writing in under two minutes.

Today’s topic might be one of the most emotionally charged issues online, with the Atlantic, the Washington Post, Slate, and other sources joining the outcry—which is what you might expect with a period drama.

But as much as you might enjoy period dramas—shows such as Poldark, Outlander, and The Crown—we are not talking about a historical period, but about a sentence period. So what’s all the drama about? It’s about how many spaces should come after it. One? Or two?

Very simply, the answer is one. Or as a Slate article puts it, “Typing two spaces after a period is totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong.”

Who says? Typographers do, the people who study and design typewritten words. They have been using one space for publication since the early 1900s.

And then came the typewriter and with it monospace font, which created wide, loose spaces between characters. The extra space after the period made the text easier to read. But today nearly every font on our computer is proportional. So there is no need for an extra space after the period. If you use two spaces, typographers will have to delete them.

Although it took me a good year to break myself of the two spaces habit, the time I’ve saved by using only one space has added seconds to my life, and those seconds have turned into days and weeks and—why, I’ve gained a whole period of my life back!

So unless you are typing on an actual typewriter, you no longer have to put two spaces after a period, a question mark, or an exclamation point. The rule applies to all end punctuation.

The next time someone says, “Hey, what’s your favorite period drama?” just tell them “One Space.”

For the rest of the story, go to www.catetouryan.com/quicktakes. Check back next Tuesday for another QuickTake with Cate. Like, comment, and share!

The rest of the story:

The longstanding convention of one space after a period is based on professional practice. All the major style guides, but one, require it—Chicago, MLA, AP, the Bluebook. The Publications Manual of the American Psychological Association, used in the behavior and social sciences, allows for two spaces in draft manuscripts but recommends one space in published work.

The one major exception to proportional fonts on a computer is Courier.

    A period drama Courier Font (monospace)

    A period drama Times New Roman (proportional font)

A proportional font can squeeze 12 letters into the same space that a monospace font can fit only 9.

If you have used two spaces throughout your document, you can change them all by using the “Find and Replace” feature in Microsoft Word (Ctrl+H). Type two spaces in the “Find” form and one space in the “Replace With” form. Then click “Replace All.”

For more on the topic, check out these online articles: