I have a couple of comments. It's been 38 years since I took typing on manual typewriters, so I obviously learned to type with two spaces between sentences. I think what you should do depends on the word processing program you are using. The programs on my computer (MSWorks and MSWord) do not compensate for periods. It may be the age of the versions, because my 18 year old son says that he hits one space on his brand new computer and it makes a double space. When I compare Courier to Times New Roman, I'd have to say that Times New Roman seems to need two spaces a lot more than Courier does.
So I will continue to hit the space bar twice in order to get the proper spacing. But for those of you with newer versions, go with one tap on the space bar.
Now, I cannot let a "teachable moment" go by without a lesson.
I understand Wendy's comment about grammatical terminology being incomprehensible to those whose educations left it out. Nevertheless, like any field, the jargon makes communication easier for those who know it, so I'm going to give a quick lesson in the basics of a couple of grammar terms that came up in this thread.
Transitive and Intransitive verbs. Fancy words for simple things.
Intransitive verbs stand alone. Someone does the action. Period. He runs. I sleep. They live. There is no direct object (the noun that comes right after a verb and receives the action) when you have an intransitive verb.
Transitive verbs cannot stand alone. You have to do the action to someone or something. There will always be a noun or pronoun right after the verb, aka a direct object. I read a book. She watched the movie. We like fanfiction.
Some verbs can be used either way. I ran a race. (transitive) I ran fast. (intransitive)
We'll leave linking verbs for another day.
Restrictive and non-restrictive clauses -- I have never liked these terms because I, the grammar geek schoolmarm, think that they are confusing to almost everyone. There is another term which is much clearer and we will use it here.
Essential clauses and non-essential clauses are much clearer, IMO.
Essential clauses do not get set off by commas because they are
essential to understanding the message of the sentence. You need them for full information. Thus, one would write: "Eleanor of Aquitaine was a powerful woman who married two kings during her life." (The intended meaning of the sentence would be unclear without the relative clause.)
Non-essential clauses get set off by commas because they are
not necessary for understanding. "The movie
Empire of the Sun, which I did not see, was based on a true story." You don't need to know whether or not I saw the movie to get the meaning of the sentence.
What can get a bit tricky with relative clauses and commas is that what seems essential to me may not seem essential to someone else. So there can be some ambiguous cases.
That, which, who, and whom:
When the antecedent (the noun the pronoun represents) is a thing,
that is used to introduce essential clauses.
Which is used to introduce non-essential clauses.
When the antecedent is a person, you can use either
that or
who/whom to introduce essential clauses. You must use
who/whom for non-essential clauses. Who is used as the subject and whom is an object within the clause itself.
Hope this helps those whose teachers neglected to teach terminology.
Schoolmarm
