A Hard Habit to Break?

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Out With The Old, In With The New

I'm not sure, maybe it's just people my age and older that this will affect - I'm not sure what they teach in schools these days? But it will affect some of us I'm sure and I'm not entirely sure I can break the habit?

I'm not good at breaking habits - there are several habits I wish I could break but over the years I've tried and sometimes I have to just admit defeat and concede that the habit just needs to remain. But this one is so automatic, I don't even think about it. In fact, my thumb just does it without thinking. Does yours?

Look at your thumb, on your right hand (or left, if you're left-handed) and ask yourself, can I control it. Can I stop it doing it's thing? Can I halve it's activity?

OK, enough now - I'm just trying to lengthen this blog as otherwise it would have been incredibly short LOL!

Some of you may have seen the announcement and it may not bother you but I'm a person who doesn't like grammatical errors - it drives me nuts if I see it in a presentation whilst doing my day job, or on a poster somewhere. Anyway, I think this announcement is going to cause my posts to have grammatical errors all over the place.

Microsoft Announcement

No more double space after a full stop (or period). What?!

I know this argument has been going on for years but it's always been that two spaces are put after a full stop (period) so that you can clearly see it's the end of the sentence. Some argue that two spaces is totally and completely wrong and it seems that one of the big powerhouses now agrees.

This came about years ago, way back when old typewriters were used

and the typists used two spaces to clearly define the end of a sentence and make the paragraph more visually appealing and clear. Over the years this is one of those things that has never clearly been changed or it's necessity clarified.

Well now Microsoft has defined the way forward.

It has so far been rolled out to desktop versions only, but if you put in a double space after the full stop (period) it will show up as an error. This is likely to be rolling out to all users very soon and then it will be official. But fear not.....

If you feel like you have to have the two spaces there is something that you can do - every single time the error shows up! Hmm! If you right click on the error it will give you some options. You can then click to ignore the issue. Or you can view every grammatically incorrect space at the end of the document and the software will mark and remove the offensive additional space that your thumb automatically put in.

I am a fast typist and once I get going smoke could come off the keyboard LOL - and part of that typing is my thumb automatically double taps at the end of the sentence. There is absolutely nothing I can do about it. It's as natural as breathing and there will be no changing it. But seeing all of those grammatical errors being highlighted is, without question, going to drive me insane!

Will this affect you? What are your thoughts? One space or two?

Hope you're all having a great day and keeping safe and well.

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Recent Comments

65

haha... it took me a while to work out what the thumb thing was....

I get it. About 4 years ago when I was giving transcription a go, and looking through style guides and requirements of various people... as well as what graphic designers think looks better in InDesign....
I made a conscious decision to change to one space. The habit wasn't ingrained as much, but I notice now when I'm coming to the end of a sentence, my body pauses... asking ok do you want one or spaces or two this time?

So my body twitches around this... but I certainly don't leave smoke behind me!

Lol it is amazing how thereโ€™s that pause for one or two spaces. Iโ€™m trying to switch to one space purely because we seem to always be character counting and limited to number of characters on Twitter or Pinterest or wherever!

Damn, I've been double spacing after a full stop ever since I had typing in highschool. That was many moons ago, but I'm not going to say just how many.

But are they serious! Who is Microsoft to go and change the grammatical rules? That's just not right.

Thank you for this information, Alex.

Barbara

Yay Barbara!! I think itโ€™s just you and I though!! Good to hear from you ๐Ÿ˜

Anyone that learned typing let just say around the 1970's learned to double space. Even in business letters they all had to be double spaced.

I didnโ€™t learn in the โ€˜70s I was a wee lass lol!

I learned in the โ€˜90s Barbara - but it was two spaces. I thought everybody did two spaces ๐Ÿคท๐Ÿปโ€โ™€๏ธ

It's blasphemy I say!

Utter, sheer Blasphemy!

Exactly!!!! ๐Ÿคฌ๐Ÿคฃ

Why do Microsoft have the power to change the English rules for writing? Shouldn't it be the successor of the person who wrote the rules in the first place?

ONE SPACE!!!!

๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚

๐Ÿ˜ฎ๐Ÿค๐Ÿคฃ๐Ÿคฃ

I was always taught two.

Last time I was taught any English grammar was in school in 1974. I'm pretty sure one space when writing was the norm.
I've never been taught typing so have no idea what would be taught but I'm guessing it would be typing techniques and not necessarily grammar.
Two spaces might have made things easier for the typist or reader but I'll stick with one......a full stop, one space and the new sentence beginning with a capital letter.
Unless the first word of that sentence is a brand that has no capitals such as adidas๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ˜
Mark

Hi Mark, thanks for your input. Yes itโ€™s purely tying that was taught that way.

Mark,
We are the same age. I can tell because we were in high school at the same time.
I took typing in my junior year and they taught us that two spaces after a full stop or period was the rule so that it did not look like the sentences were all smooshed together.

I don't know how that would actually work when you are writing a paper, unless you left added space's before beginning a new sentence.

Barbara

I've never been a typist Barbara but I've read a whole lot of typed documents and I never took much notice of how many spaces there were after a full stop, probably because they weren't exactly evident...lolss

Now that I've begun to type a lot in later years, not as a typist per se but as a user of word processors, I've never felt or seen the need for the double space hence one it is for me!

Interesting to read of others' experiences though :-)

Mark

It's certainly very interesting to read the opinions of others.

Stay safe and well.

Barbara

You too Barbara, have a great weekend too :-)

Mark

Same to you, Mark.

Really how could you change that with you being a typist I bet it drives you crazy ๐Ÿ˜œ great post

Lol! Iโ€™m not a typist Dorrie, I just learned how to do it for when I needed it.

And yes it will drive me crazy going forward!! Lol. Thanks for commenting ๐Ÿ˜

Oops ๐Ÿ˜ฌ

Hi Alexandra,

Although I'm no expert by any means, I too am a bit of a nut job when it comes to spelling and grammar.

I am a single stop guy, always have been and I suppose I always will be.

I'm also an apostrophe pedant. It drives me insane when I see apostrophe's(;-)) used to donate the plural of a word e.g.

"apple's available here"

or when something is all on it's own....aaargggghhh!

As you can probably tell, I'm a bit of a drama queen when it comes to this stuff but it'll always get to me.

A hard habit to break? You bet....lolssss

Great post :-)

Mark

PS.....

Eats shoots and leaves!

Lol!!! We are peas in a pod!! ๐Ÿ˜

Pea's, surely?

Lol!! Absolutely NOT!!!

Hahahahaha!!

Yes, habits are hard to break but I have gotten used to the single spacing so I will not loose any sleep over this Microsoft announcement.

I think Iโ€™m the only one then lol!! Thanks Stanley ๐Ÿ˜

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