. I have to admit, one space is an on-going, slow-simmering irritation. I read an explanation about how the modern font-faces give a little extra space after a full-stop, and that's enough... but it's really not. IF the next sentence starts with a regular word, that cap letter helps me notice the period, and my mind closes the sentence. But if the next sentence starts with a person's name or 'I', which would be capped anywhere in a sentence, I frequently miss the period, then find myself stumbling into a run-on sentence that makes no sense. Then I have to stop, back up, search out the period, and separate the ideas properly.
And yes, I know HTML forces a single space even when I'm typing two. You'd think, after 20-odd years on the 'Net, I'd have adjusted my reading, but I still do the miss-stumble-back up routine fairly frequently. I HATE it. That's why I copy/paste my fave stories into MS Word, and add the double spaces and curly quotes for comfortable re-reading.
But at least I'm old enough recognize what's happening, and to compensate. I find it much more problematic that period-single-space is used in printed books for young people. This year I have several students that bring their library books to speech therapy, so they can practice their target sounds while reading aloud -- and 90% of the time, they simply do not notice the period, and continue the next sentence without a pause. These students are 9-10-11 year old kids, not beginning readers. I realize that the current standards for teaching reading (faster, faster, faster!) are the main culprit, but I'm convinced that the lack of extra white space after a period simply adds another stumbling block to the process of gaining reading fluency and comprehension for young people.
So, yeah: firmly in the two-space camp, bowing to the constraints of internet life -- but only under protest. .
no subject
I have to admit, one space is an on-going, slow-simmering irritation. I read an explanation about how the modern font-faces give a little extra space after a full-stop, and that's enough... but it's really not. IF the next sentence starts with a regular word, that cap letter helps me notice the period, and my mind closes the sentence. But if the next sentence starts with a person's name or 'I', which would be capped anywhere in a sentence, I frequently miss the period, then find myself stumbling into a run-on sentence that makes no sense. Then I have to stop, back up, search out the period, and separate the ideas properly.
And yes, I know HTML forces a single space even when I'm typing two. You'd think, after 20-odd years on the 'Net, I'd have adjusted my reading, but I still do the miss-stumble-back up routine fairly frequently. I HATE it. That's why I copy/paste my fave stories into MS Word, and add the double spaces and curly quotes for comfortable re-reading.
But at least I'm old enough recognize what's happening, and to compensate. I find it much more problematic that period-single-space is used in printed books for young people. This year I have several students that bring their library books to speech therapy, so they can practice their target sounds while reading aloud -- and 90% of the time, they simply do not notice the period, and continue the next sentence without a pause. These students are 9-10-11 year old kids, not beginning readers. I realize that the current standards for teaching reading (faster, faster, faster!) are the main culprit, but I'm convinced that the lack of extra white space after a period simply adds another stumbling block to the process of gaining reading fluency and comprehension for young people.
So, yeah: firmly in the two-space camp, bowing to the constraints of internet life -- but only under protest.
.