Current Events > TIL that you're no longer supposed to double-space after a sentence.

(+) Yeah! (+)

And it's how Zoomers can identify out of touch Millennials and Gen X-ers.

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...It's been that way for decades.

I dont know any millennials who double-space, we always thought it was a boomer thing

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I think that stopped being a thing pretty early on in my school years. Forgot when.

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I double space

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I remember being taught to do that in early primary school, but it was no longer expected by the time I finished primary. (Mid 90s, New Zealand)

I had forgotten about it until a few years back when I was working on a website and the person it was for (boomer) criticized the lack of double spacing after sentences. Basically explained to her - that's not how things are done in general anymore, and never has been in the case of websites; if she really wanted me to I was happy to do it but it would end up with a website that looks awkward and unprofessional. In a very surprising move for someone of her generation, she actually listened to my advice.

EDIT: "Primary" is what we call "elementary" here.

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I've always double spaced but it's pointless in most cases because web browsers and email clients will strip consecutive white spaces anyway.

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TheOtherMike posted...

...It's been that way for decades.

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I literally didn't know this until I went back to college in my early 30s.

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You double-space for APA, single for MLA. Single in casual usage too. I definitely was taught to double-space in K-12, which is really weird in hindsight.

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I'm glad it was a thing when I was any school. Any advantage to help meet the page requirement for essays.

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Lorkhaj posted...

You double-space for APA, single for MLA

I had to do a course on proper essay writing, which covered both those styles (plus Chicago), in my first year of university. At no point was anything mentioned about the double-spacing, nor did I ever get marked down for not doing so.

Not saying it doesn't exist as a rule in the style manual, but it would seem it isn't actually applied in practice anymore. More importantly, I doubt anyone - especially average people without academic backgrounds - actually apply APA or any other style guide to their average day-to-day writings.

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Some law journals still use two space because reasons.


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MrToothHasYou posted...

I dont know any millennials who double-space, we always thought it was a boomer thing

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Yeah, I thought I was correctly informing my 16 year old daughter the other day that she needed to double space her sentences and she looked at me like I was insane and speaking a different language. Can confirm that it is apparently no longer a thing.... I graduated in 2000, it was still a thing then at least...

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gfaqs message boards actual remove extra spaces like that entirely

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Tyranthraxus posted...

Lmao, this reminded me of this "poet" that one of our media outlets here hired. He claims to be published and award-winning (no idea if it's true, his level of arrogance over it really does raise questions), and yet his poetry is literally just rants translated into old english with random linebreaks thrown in. >_>

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Double spacing was a typewriter thing, it has never served any purpose on word processors. But as someone who does page layout for people, I can tell you that you definitely aren't the only one

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I was taught double spacing for a new paragraph but totally forgot about it til just now

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Funny. Early gen-x here, four years short of the modern boomer dates and this is totally a TIL. :)



Yup. Makes sense, but had no idea. Been doing double space for 40 years. Why didn't the school board try to find me?

EndOfDiscOne posted...

...out of touch...

That was a bit harsh. I'm gonna give you the real what fer after my nap! Goddamnit, I double spaced. I dunno if this is something I can unlearn at this point.

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Double space is an obsolete typewriter practice that boomers are unwilling to stop doing and are still poisoning the minds of youth with in typing class even after the first word processor released. Modern, proportionally-spaced fonts already have the proper kerning built-in to make new sentences distinct enough with just one space after the period unlike the fixed-width fonts of ye olde typewriters and text editors dedicated to coding like NP++.

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Found a boomer

Trumble posted...

I remember being taught to do that in early primary school, but it was no longer expected by the time I finished primary. (Mid 90s, New Zealand)

I had forgotten about it until a few years back when I was working on a website and the person it was for (boomer) criticized the lack of double spacing after sentences. Basically explained to her - that's not how things are done in general anymore, and never has been in the case of websites; if she really wanted me to I was happy to do it but it would end up with a website that looks awkward and unprofessional. In a very surprising move for someone of her generation, she actually listened to my advice.

EDIT: "Primary" is what we call "elementary" here.

Following on from this in light of the typewriter points, I have never used a typewriter in my life. Unless you count having an old, non-functional one as a "toy" as a kid and randomly banging on it or pretending it's a cash register as "using", that is. I was taught two spaces after a sentence in regards to handwriting. Not 100% sure but I think by the time I used any kind of word processor, I was already out of the double-spacing after a sentence habit.

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Trumble posted...

Lmao, this reminded me of this "poet" that one of our media outlets here hired. He claims to be published and award-winning (no idea if it's true, his level of arrogance over it really does raise questions), and yet his poetry is literally just rants translated into old english with random linebreaks thrown in. >_>

heh

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Paragon21XX posted...

Double space is an obsolete typewriter practice

True, but when I was taught to touch type in secondary school it was using a scheme that was originally intended for typewriters. As a result, we still got taught to double space.

Always hated using type writers. If you made a mistake the whole thing was fucked.

I remember eventually I got my hands on an "erasable ink typewriter" that shit didn't work at all

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Well I guess it's time to pretend I knew this all along while I attempt to undo three decades of ingrained typing behavior.

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People seem to be referring to two different things here. Double spacing after sentences was never really a thing throughout school, but double line spacing was definitely a thing. When they'd say "x pages, double spaced", they were referring to line spacing.

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kirbymuncher posted...

gfaqs message boards actual remove extra spaces like that entirely

You mean gamefaqs has been stealing from me the whole time? That's awful.

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archedsoul posted...

People seem to be referring to two different things here. Double spacing after sentences was never really a thing throughout school, but double line spacing was definitely a thing. When they'd say "x pages, double spaced", they were referring to line spacing.

Everyone here seems to have understood the context just fine until now.

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i like the look of double space visually because it helps separate the sentences better

i still do it out of habit

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i still double space, even when the extra whitespace gets removed by the software.

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where there's a required format, i follow the format. otherwise i type how i want

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Guerrilla Soldier posted...

i like the look of double space visually because it helps separate the sentences better

i still do it out of habit

Honestly, I'm so used to single-space by now that it's actually kinda jarring when there's double space. Not quite on the same level as, say, all-caps or even worse random-caps, but it's still mildly disruptive IMO.

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I had a hunch about where I learned this, and double checked the game to be sure, but im pretty sure Mario Teaches Typing in 1st grade or so is what put me on the double space train lol. Thanks a lot Mario

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archedsoul posted...

People seem to be referring to two different things here. Double spacing after sentences was never really a thing throughout school, but double line spacing was definitely a thing. When they'd say "x pages, double spaced", they were referring to line spacing.

Same here. It wasn't until I saw a topic a few years back on CE that I even knew double-spacing after periods was a thing.

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