[Blindtlk] a question of spacing

Tue Jun 23 20:54:01 UTC 2009

Those of us who are already adults will know that we were taught to use
two spaces between sentences.  What is correct in written English has
changed.  I was shocked to read in THE CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE: THE
ESSENTIAL GUIDE FOR WRITERS, EDITORS, AND PUBLISHERS, 15th edition,
which is the most recent one out, that one space after a sentence is now
normally placed before the next sentence.  See "Sentences, spacing
between" at 2.12 and 6.11.  Here is some of the text under "KEYBOARDING:
GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS" which is in the section called, "2. Manuscript
Preparation and Manuscript Editing":

2.12
Line spacing and word spacing.  For the hard copy, the entire text and,
if possible, all extracts, notes, bibliography, index, and other
material should be vertically double-spaced. A single character space,
not two spaces, should be left after periods at the ends of sentences
(bothin manuscript and in final, published form)and after colons.  

It continues a bit further with more about colons and ends of
paragraphs, but I'll stop here.

Lorraine Rovig
Program Operations Specialist
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND

"The concept of the hierarchy of sight-that is, the notion that the
level to which a blind person can be competent and successful rises or
falls in direct proportion to the amount of vision he or she has-is
nothing more than a myth and is completely false." --Dr. Kenneth
Jernigan

-----Original Message-----
From: blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On Behalf Of Gary Wunder
Sent: Monday, June 22, 2009 8:48 AM
To: Blind Talk Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] a question of spacing

I know that in Dragon NaturallySpeaking, one is given the option of one
or 
two spaces after a period so my guess is this is now considered optional
by 
those who make the rules.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve P. Deeley" <stevep.deeley at insightbb.com>
To: "Blind Talk Mailing List" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, June 19, 2009 5:00 PM
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] a question of spacing

>I think people are just lazy and don't place the other space after the 
>period!  That is too much like work!\
> Steve----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Mike Sivill" <mike.sivill at viewplus.com>
> To: "'Ray Foret jr'" <rforetjr at comcast.net>; "'Blind Talk Mailing
List'" 
> <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Friday, June 19, 2009 5:46 PM
> Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] a question of spacing
>
>
>> Hi Ray,
>> I was told that the "two spaces" rule has been dropped. I guess a lot
of 
>> us
>> missed the memo. Sorry, I can't cite any text saying that though.
>> Mike
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>> Behalf Of Ray Foret jr
>> Sent: Friday, June 19, 2009 2:21 PM
>> To: Blind Talk Mailing List
>> Subject: [Blindtlk] a question of spacing
>>
>> Okay.
>>
>> Here's the observation.  I cannot help but notice that when I read an

>> e-mail
>>
>> from a sighted person, there is only one space following a sentence 
>> ending
>> period.  However, when I read most blind people's e-mails, (the ones
I 
>> come
>> in to contact with anyhow) I cannot help but observe that there are
two
>> spaces following a sentence ending period.  With some blind people's
>> e-mails, there is only one space following a sentence ending period. 
>> Back
>> when I took typing in highschool, we were taught that when you end a
>> sentence with a period, you MUST space twice.  Also, paragraphs were
to 
>> be
>> indented by spacing five times in from the left margin.  Nowadays, 
>> though,
>> it would appear that those rules are changed.  Are paragraphs still
to be
>> indented five spaces in from the left margin?  And what about spacing

>> after
>> sentence ending periods?  As for the five spaces, I rather suspect
that 
>> this
>>
>> was done so as to put the first letter of the first line of the
paragraph
>> one half inch from the left margin; using pyka type.  With Microsoft 
>> word,
>> the number of spaces needed to put the insertion point one half inch
from
>> the left margin appears to be twelve.  Thoughts?  Am I missing
something
>> somewhere?
>>
>> Sincerely,
>> The Constantly BAREFOOTED Ray
>>
>> "Old friend, what are you looking for?  After those many years abroad
you
>> come With images you tended Under foreign skies Far away from your
own 
>> land"
>> George Seferis
>>
>> Phone or Fax::
>> +1 (985) 360-3614
>> Cell:
>> +1 (985) 791-2938
>> e-mail:
>> rforetjratcomcastdotnet
>> Skype Name:
>> barefootedray
>>
>>
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>
>
>
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