After attending a 4-hour grammar class–yes, I know, I am a geek–I was heartened to witness that there are those still out there who are positively impassioned about punctuation.
The class erupted in a thirty-minute discussion on–get this–how many spaces should follow a period.
Good grief.
You would have thought we were talking about which soda as better: Pepsi or Coke. No fewer than thirty-five people weighed in on the matter. These were their thoughts:
- If you are typing on a typewriter (and, really, who does this?), it is two spaces.
- If you are tweeting, it is one space–if you have even written a complete sentence, that is.
- If it is a legal document, it is two spaces.
- If it is a mobile device, most phones automatically make it a period followed by one space, if you enter two spaces.
- If it is web copy, it is one space.
Finally, after nearly coming to fisticuffs, the consensus was to use one space after a period.
Geez. You woulda thought it was the Grammargeddon.