Laura, I’m sad to tell you that, yes, I did indeed convert all of your double spaces after periods to single spaces. And to be honest, I would no more have thought to ask for your permission to do this than I imagine an off-duty police officer might before stopping a convenience store robbery he happened to encounter while buying a cup of coffee.
Perhaps this is because I have spent the last ten years earning a living ferreting out such common typographical errors. Yes, it’s true. Many people, me included, actually make careers out of removing double spaces after periods and other such horrors before hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent to print what we here in the design and printing industry consider blatant, glaring errors. I would even go so far as to admit pride in my ability to spot a superfluous space at a clear ten paces.
Acting as the voice of harried graphic designers on screaming deadlines all over the world, I would refer you to
The Mac is NOT a Typewriter, a neat little book that dispels all of the evil typing techniques that today’s modern computers have made obsolete. In fact, the author, Robin Williams, feels so strongly about the one-space rule that she places it as both the Chapter 1 topic and as the first bullet point in the blurb on the back of the book.
Don’t let the Mac in the book’s title fool you – this rule applies to PCs as well. You could also check out
The Chicago Manual of Style which is an excellent guide for all things editorial.
As for the middle-school teachers who taught you this technique on word processors, based on what I believe your current age to be and working backwards as to when you might have been in middle-school, I would fathom a guess that even if these teachers had been brand spankin’ new out of college, they still most likely learned to type in the “olden days” and were taught that double spaces were a requirement. Perhaps they were never untaught this. I just don’t know. But I do know that once upon a time, doctors were taught that bleeding a patient was a wise thing to do. Doesn't necessarily make it right given modern knowledge and technology, wouldn't you agree?
I do see, however, how hard of a habit it is to break, especially for people who have been doing it for many many years. Like I said, it took me a lot of concentration to stop doing it and I had a good motivation - I would have been fired if I didn't. Since most writers on the board aren't faced with such consequences, I can see why they might not see any need to change their ways at this point in their lives.
Also, as a writer, I completely understand the ownership one feels toward a story. Nothing drives me crazier than to see my story posted with a missing paragraph return or an extra space between paragraphs or some other "thing" that I consider incorrect formatting. And because of this, I must respect each individual writer's preferences despite my differing opinion.
Out of that respect and in recognition that perhaps the rules don’t apply in fanficdom or on the internet where TXT files default to the horrid Courier font, I will concede your right to go AMA. Tramping down my typographical snobbery, I will simply return your missing spaces and resubmit the documents to the archive for replacement.
Yvonne, I will not change your double spaces to single spaces in the current story I am GEing, again bowing to your specific wishes. And I like you, too!
And going forward as a GE, I will consider this whole situation as a lesson learned. I will no longer take it upon myself to correct things that I feel make the story visually more appealing, instead focusing strictly on grammar and spelling. Because in the end, I guess it really doesn't matter in this particular arena where stories are generally viewed on screen and not on paper.
Sorry to have caused any frustrations. Please feel assured to know that they have been well repaid by many of my own.
Lynn
Edited in response to Anne's post.
