Don’t be a space case.
One of my editors just told me about a pet peeve that many of us commit every few seconds: She hates it when writers insert two spaces after periods. The “two spaces” rule is a holdover from the days before proportionally-spaced fonts, but many of us are total squares and dutifully but misguidedly stick two spaces after each period. This means that someone at the magazine has to go through and remove all the extra spaces, and if your editor is like my editor, it makes her want to strangle the writer. Train yourself to insert just one space after periods unless the magazine’s style guide specifically calls for two spaces. (If you forget, use the Search/Replace function in Word to replace two spaces throughout the document with one space.) [LF]
If you liked that post, you might also like:
Aug 15, 2006 Advice
Ha-ha! I laughed out loud when I read this suggestion, Linda, because it is one of my pet peeves too!
But now here’s a question for that same editor: What about two spaces between a state abbreviation and a zip code — is that still considered correct or does that also drive her crazy?
So many of my students do one space that I am beginning to wonder if I am missing something.
Thanks, Linda! Keep the good stuff coming.
Christina Katz
Hm, I never heard of the two-spaces-after-state rule! She didn’t mention it. I’d leave it out, but that’s just me. Anyone else here know…?
Linda
I always do this! How embarrassing…