To double-space or not; that is the question...

Susan Pierotti, Creative Text Solutions Would you like to make an editor's life easy? Don't double-space after a full stop! When editing fiction, I have noticed that the print copy I get tends to have two spaces at the end of every sentence. It is really tedious having to correct them all, so that set me thinking: why the habit of double-spacing? The tradition of double-spacing The editing world is at an exciting point in history. The advent of electronic communication has jolted the world of words out of its comfort zone. Four hundred years of print conventions are being blasted out the window, writers are in crisis. Honestly, it's not that dramatic, but one would never know from the temperature of the arguments on such matters. A family member of mine pronounced that she'd been double-spacing for over 20 years and therefore she was right. Wrong! Hooray for the computer! Double-spacing after a sentence is needed when one is typing...on a typewriter. Remember those? The type on a typewriter put an even space between every letter. This actually makes text hard to read as the spaces around a wide letter like "Y" or "W" would make the entire letter space wider than around something like "I". [caption id="attachment_148" align="alignright" width="150"] Compare the spacing around the letters I and M[/caption] Electronic typing changed all that. Now there was no need to set text up in metal blocks any more; the software program was designed to adjust the spacing (also known as 'kerning') automatically. This made two spaces after each full stop unnecessary. Keep your editor happy So, whenever you have to submit a document of some sort to an editor, only put one space between sentences. It will save you time and keep you in the editor's good books. If you are still unsure about formatting, contact me at Creative Text Solutions http://www.creativetext.com.au for all your proofreading and editing needs.