In Defense Of Space (The Extra One After A Period)

Does sentence spacing really matter? This law professor seems to think so.

writing typing blogging keyboardA plague is coming over our land. There was a time when words mattered. They were metered. They meant something. With the proliferation of social media, words came in abundance. Then, sometime, somewhere, someone decided that to increase the readability of words and to ensure we could pack more of them in, we should only single-space after the period at the end of a sentence.

I clearly missed this trend.  For some reason, I was in my own little world, not realizing that editors were single-spacing my double-spaced sentences.  Meanwhile, online, people were being ridiculed for using the extra space.  They were told they were old, outmoded, a relic of a quainter time of monospaced fonts and manual typewriters.  If you are of my generation, your typing instructor may have taught you to double space after a period at the end of the sentence, but modern keyboarding teaches otherwise.  Worse:  Your credibility may be at stake if you use double spacing after a period.  And, it makes your work less aesthetically pleasing.  People have spent a great deal of time training themselves to no longer tap that space bar twice after a period in order to conform to the current fashion.

I think of how I spent part of my weekend, chatting with friends on Twitter about the history of single spacing. When did presses start using single spacing? Several people investigated their library, causing them allergic reactions to dusty books in search of single-spaced sentences versus looking for the extra space. No one seems to know why we changed to sentences with a single space between them from sentences separated by two spaces, despite some serious attempts at getting to the bottom of this mystery. Even now, writing about this, I feel like the old man shouting at the children to get off his lawn.

There are times when changes in standardization are essential and efficient.  For example, houses burned down because the wrong fire department was called when the fire hydrants were not uniform.  I think of USB ports and other scientific innovation.  In those instances, the call for standardization and changes in standards improved communication and efficiency and even saved lives.  Yeah, the single space isn’t any of that.  It’s a style choice, like cargo shorts or jorts.  I’m not having any of that.  Okay, maybe the cargo shorts.

As I write this blog on my iPhone or Android (which creates a period if you double space — BURN), I think of other stylistic choices that have caused controversy. By now, we’ve all read the story of the dairy and the lack of Oxford comma. We all probably have opinions on that as well. I wonder about the overlap: Do people who love the Oxford comma and its rich tradition equally deplore the double space after a sentence and its rich tradition? Regardless, style does matter, and can impact the words we use.

No matter.  I choose to rebel.  From here on out, I am a devotee of the rich tradition of grammar.  Every sentence we write matters.  We ought to give each sentence the respect it deserves with a pause after its conclusion.  We ought not be so keen to embrace new trends that have no reason behind them.  For the same reason, I refuse to give up my old corduroy jacket for one with thinner lines.  There are better reasons to embrace the extra space after a period, but these are my reasons.

Some like the hip look of the single space after a period. It allows you to get to the next sentence faster somehow. There is efficiency to it, with the words condensed. I imagine this is the kind of thinking that made casebooks so darned easy to read.

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I don’t want to stereotype, but I think the single spacing crowd is comprised of people who are always rushing someplace.  They tailgate me before speeding off, arriving home moments before I do, but much more worked up about it.  I suspect they are the people who sigh at customers who haven’t decided their order in line at the Starbucks.  I think they are likely to look at me with pity, and the words in my sentences separated by two spaces with contempt.  There is no compassion in the single space.  Of course, none of those stereotypes are true.  It just sounds true when single-spacers speak to me with pity about my style choice.

Regardless, it stops now. I have started a White House petition to require the federal government to add that extra space at the end of the sentence to all documents and to use the Oxford comma. I’m tired of people telling me to wear the cargo shorts of single-spaced efficiency.  I’m done with the looks of judgment and contempt.  I’m not having it when people suggest I’m over 40 merely because my sentences are separated by two spaces. I refuse to be oppressed by the imperialism of a regime that no one voted for and that we all somehow choose to accept (except on Twitter, of course).

And, in the spirit of March Madness, my final two points:

Did you notice how each paragraph has different spacings after each sentence?  If not, are we arguing about nothing?

Get off my lawn, you young whippersnappers!

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Earlier: A Random Friday Poll: One Space or Two Between Sentences?
Small Firms, Big Lawyers: A Period Piece


LawProfBlawg is an anonymous professor at a top 100 law school who, this week, practices his satirical skills. You can see more of his musings here and on Twitter. Email him at lawprofblawg@gmail.com.