The Great Debate: How Many Spaces After a Period?
Of all the issues people debate about today, you’d be surprised that sentence spacing is among the fiercest controversies, to the point that researchers felt it needed to be studied.
One side believes that using only one space after a period is the correct way. On the other hand, the opposition thinks it needs to be two. But which of them is correct? Or is this a classic case of potato, potahto?
How Many Spaces Go After a Period?
When in doubt, always use one space after a period. The majority of word processors recognize this as the correct way. Also, almost all of the most used style guides advise this, including:
- APA Style by the American Psychological Association (used in scholarly writing)
- MLA Handbook by the Modern Language Association (also used in scholarly writing)
- Associated Press Stylebook by the Associated Press (used in journalism and corporate communication)
- The Chicago Manual of Style by the University of Chicago (used in publishing)
- The Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications by Microsoft (used in technical writing, especially when working with Microsoft products)
- The Gregg Reference Manual by William A. Sabin (used in business)
The use of a single space applies regardless of whether your sentence ends in a period, an exclamation mark, or any other punctuation.
A Brief History of Sentence Spacing
So how did the space debate come into existence? The simple answer is technology.
Invention of Movable Type
Let’s go back to when the movable type (a system of printing technology that made use of movable components to print documents) was just invented by Johannes Gutenberg.
Back then, spacing was highly variable to account for any size of spaces and to allow for consistent justification (how spaces between words and letters are adjusted to align the ends of consecutive lines).
Printers loosely followed style guides that stated sentences should be em-spaced (which is approximately the width of a capital letter M) and words must be 1/3 or 1/2 em-spaced.
The purpose of such a large space after sentences was partly for aesthetics and partly for signaling that a sentence is at an end. But even then, a spacing technique called French spacing used single spaces between sentences.
Advent of the Typewriter
While there were earlier mechanical typing systems (such as the Monotype and Linotype machines), the typewriter became the preferred machine for typing soon after it was introduced.
The problem though is that, unlike the other machines, the typewriter didn’t have the capability for varied spacing. There was only ever one size of space. So people began using the space bar multiple times to create the needed variation.
Initially, people inserted three spaces after each period to mimic traditional printing, but soon settled with only using two. This practice became known as English spacing, which removed spaces around most punctuations but doubled the spaces after sentences, colons, and semicolons.
During this period, English spacing became the most common method, except among French typists, who continued using French spacing. This is why, for those who were taught to use the typewriter at school, adding two spaces after a period was the norm.
Modern Technology and the Computer Era
Starting in the mid-19th century, mass-produced printing began to gain popularity. This increase led printing presses, still expensive ventures then, to look for ways to reduce costs, simplify the printing process, and shorten printing time.
Coincidentally, this was also the time that magazine, newspaper, and book publications began using the single-space convention. Perhaps it’s a way to cram more letters into a page and simplify manuscripts, or maybe it’s simply an aesthetic change. The exact reasons are unclear and still up for debate.
Another contributor to the change may be innovations to the typewriter itself. In 1941, IBM released the Executive, a typewriter capable of proportional spacing, thus breaking the typewriter’s monospaced (having letters and numbers occupying the same amount of space) limitations. It is important to know though, that this innovation wasn’t adopted by the majority of typewriter models.
The appearance of more advanced technologies also advanced the single-space convention. Electronic phototypesetting systems ignored consecutive word spaces and collapsed them into a single space once detected. When the World Wide Web was invented, its HTML format ignores additional spacing.
The invention of word processing software such as Microsoft Word also made proportional spacing even more common, making the spaces between words and sentences more pronounced. This eliminated the need for extra spaces.
Why the Debate Rages On
The debate has definitely died down in recent years. Perhaps this is due to a big and fairly recent update that Microsoft made in 2020. Microsoft Word, one of the most popular word processing software that exists, now recognizes two sentences after a period as an error.
Today, the debate mostly centers on the aesthetics and readability between both methods. Both sides argue that their method is more aesthetically pleasing and more readable than the other. While modern typographers prefer the single-space method because of its continuity and seamlessness, “two spacers” claim that extra spaces after sentences are better for distinguishing a complete thought and marking the end of a sentence.
This back-and-forth debate would briefly peak in 2018 when a study that supported the two-space method appeared, claiming that extra spaces made reading easier and at least three percent faster. However, it was soon picked apart by people who pointed out that it didn’t involve reading comprehension, only tested 60 subjects, and used Courier New, a monospace font still used today.
Another popular argument is that two-spacing is a holdover from the typewriter era. This is a misconception though, as proportional spacing existed alongside monospacing even before the typewriter was invented. Still, it’s one of the most argued points in this never-ending debate.
Personally, I’m partial to only using one space. It’s what I grew up with and what I’ve been using since the start of my typing experience. I think it’s simpler and more visually pleasing. Texts with two spaces after their sentences look odd to me as if they’re riddled with holes throughout the pages.
Plus, it’s a more efficient method. Adding two spaces seem like minimal work, but if you consider how many sentences you actually write, that’s a lot of extra spaces to type in.
It seems to me that the main reason for the debate is because we are in a period where two generations of people exist who were taught two different methods that both believe are correct. I don’t see a right-wrong situation here, merely a difference in preference and aesthetics.
People who grew up with the typewriter simply use two spaces out of habit. It’s what they’ve been taught and what they’ve used for a long time. And people who grew up in the computer era (like me) are also used to the single space method. Expecting both to change seems unthinkable.
What Should You Use?
While neither may be incorrect, it is irrefutable that using one space after a period is currently the norm. Most style guides word processors and publications advise its use. Considering this, you might be better off using the single space method.
Of course, no one is forcing you to use a method you don’t prefer, especially if you’re still using the typewriter, where using two spaces is more advantageous.
Which side of the debate are you on? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like:
- When to Write Out Numbers: What Chicago, APA, and MLA Say About Numerals
- How to Use Dashes: Your Guide to The Em Dash, En Dash, and Hyphen
- How to Use Quotation Marks: Rules and Examples
- Capitalization Rules: The Do’s and Don’ts of Uppercase
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