Question...Do We Use One Space or Two After a Period Before Beginning a New Sentence?
Updated: Jul 12, 2021
Hello writers and authors,
Welcome Back to Clever Writer By Heather!
Where we encourage you to DREAM big, CREATE stories that INSPIRE others!
I'm Heather. I'm an author and a former teacher.
I'm the author of Colors of the World: Adventures.
And Guardian of the Dream Tree.
In my last blog, I shared a little about my educational background in working with English Language Learners and children with learning disabilities.
Grammar and punctuation were vital in teaching my students how to read and write in the English language.
As writers and authors, we need to understand the importance of using punctuation to help our readers clearly understand the message we want to convey in our stories.
Punctuation creates pauses and accentuation in the flow of conception of ideas we generate in our storytelling.
If you seek to become an author or are here to improve your writing skills, stick around.
I'll share more writing tips on the spaces after a period in your writing.
But first, I want to invite you to subscribe to my YouTube channel Clever Writer By Heather. By clicking the subscribe button and the bell above, you can stay updated with my latest videos and writing tips.
In today's video, we will be looking at more punctuation rules to help you write clearly with confidence in your writing.
We will be looking at the question on the use of periods.
Specifically, we will be looking at:
Do we use one space or two after a period before beginning another sentence?
And we will look at the history behind that question.
As an emerging author or an accomplished author seasoned in publishing, every writer needs to understand punctuation basics and how they work to write clearly in the English language.
Now, if you feel like you are struggling to even get the first sentence of your story written down, don't be discouraged.
It has happened to many writers. We all start somewhere.
Here's a quote by Ernest Hemingway that I hope will bring you some inspiration in your writing.
He said,
"All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know." ~Ernest Hemingway
That is an excellent place to start as a writer. Start with what you know.
Okay, let's jump into some practical writing techniques in using periods in our writing.
If you'd like to see the explainer video that goes along with this teaching, then I suggest you click on the video above or click on "explainer video" so you can follow along.
Okay, the question of one space or two after a period has been in discussion for some time.
If you surveyed that question to a group of people, you'd find you'll get a mix of answers.
What do you think?
Do we use one space or two spaces after a period to begin another sentence?
And Why are we even asking this question?
Think about it, was there a time when we did use two spaces?
How about using one space after the period?
Let's look at the following information and see if we can get these questions answered for you.
There is a difference in opinion as to which technique is correct. We are told to use one space after, writing in APA Style.
APA style represents the American Psychological Association. This type of composing research papers is used in the area of academic studies.
The Associated Press Stylebook and the Chicago Manual of Style are also in agreement with this rule.
The Chicago Manual of Style guides authors, editors, and publishers of books, periodicals, and journals.
The AP Stylebook is the prime reference for those in the news and public relations fields.
With the introduction of the typewriter in the late 19th century, typists used two spaces between sentences to mimic the style used by traditional typesetters.
While wide sentence spacing was phased out in the printing industry in the mid-20th century, the practice continued on typewriters and later on computers.
We used two spaces before because the typesetters used a monospace font.
This was a typeface with the same width for each character.
The m o n o s p a c e f o n t looks like this. See the extra spacing?
Now that we use computers to type out our stories, the font used in publishing is proportional.
The proportional font is any font whose different characters have different widths, and it looks like this.
Now, let's look at the following examples from my book Colors of the World: Adventures.
We will look at what is correct and incorrect regarding spaces after a period.
Incorrect: This pyre was tall, and angular.__It had a symbol on it like a triangle, with a dragon's eye dead center in it with talons encasing the angular shape.
Do you see the two spaces?
It is no longer necessary to follow a period with two spaces before beginning a new sentence.
Now, let's look at the correct format.
Correct: This pyre was tall and angular._It had a symbol on it like a triangle, with a dragon's eye dead center in it with talons encasing the angular shape.
Notice the single space?
Following these writing techniques you learned today will help you write like a seasoned writer— with confidence!
Well, I hope this blog helped you gain more confidence in your writing today.
We looked at:
Do we use one space or two spaces after a period to begin another sentence?
And where do we place the period when using parentheses in our writing?
Let me know if this blog helped to shed light on those questions for you today by commenting below.
And remember what Papa Hemingway said,
" All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know. " ~Ernest Hemingway
It's an excellent place to start as a writer.
Start with what you know.
Until next time,
Happy writing!
If you'd like to do further reading on my other writing tips, I invite you to check out my website, The Clever Writer Portal.
Or visit my YouTube channel, Clever Writer By Heather.