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This is a list of style guides that contain guidance on sentence spacing. Due to a widespread misconception regarding proper sentence spacing, notably in languages with Latin-based alphabets, many writers query Internet search engines to determine how many spaces to place between sentences.[1] Although sentence spacing is a matter of typography,[2] many style and language guides offer guidance on proper sentence spacing.

Style guides are important to writers since "virtually all professional editors work closely with one of them in editing a manuscript for publication."[3] Comprehensive style guides such as the Chicago Manaul of Style and style guides developed by the American Psychological Association, and the Modern Language Association provide standards for a wide variety of writing, design, and English language topics—such as grammar, punctuation, and typographic conventions—and are widely used regardless of profession. Many style manuals discuss proper sentence spacing, providing a standard for the manual's adherents to follow.[4] The vast majority of U.S. and international style guides that use a Latin-derived alphabet as a language base prescribe or recommend the use of a single space after the concluding punctuation of a sentence in final written works and publications.[5] Some style guides permit the use of a double space in certain circumstances if preferred by the writer. No known U.S. or international style guide (for languages using a Latin-derived alphabet) currently prescribes the use of a double space after terminal punctuation in final or published work.

Many style guides do not provide guidance on sentence spacing. In some cases, the spacing of the volume or work itself provides an indication on the recommendation for usage of sentence spacing.[6] A lack of guidance on sentence spacing is also notable for style guides in languages which did not adopt double sentence spacing to accomodate the mechanical limitations of the typewriter, and which conform to the current convention for published work, single sentence spacing.[7]

International style guides

The 6th edition of the Style Manual: For Authors, Editors and Printers, reprinted in 2007, is the latest edition of the manual published beginning in 1966 by the Commonwealth Government Printing Office. The Commonwealth is an organization of 54 states worldwide, with English as one of the offical languages, or, that has an English-speaking portion of the population. The Commonwealth has member states on every continent except for Antarctica. The Style Manual stipulates that one space, not two, is always used after a full stop or other "sentence-closing punctuation". It further asserts that "Programs for word processing and desktop publishing offer more sophisticated, variable spacing, so this practice of double spacing is now avoided because it can create distracting gaps on a page."[8]

The Canadian Style, A Guide to Writing and Editing is a widely used Canadian writing style guide. As the official languages of Canada include both English and French, this manual provides writing conventions in both languages. Its most recent edition states that "in English there is no space before and one space after a punctuation mark."[9] In the "French Typographical Rules" chapter, this manual states that a single space follows terminal punctuation and that double spacing is not allowed following any punctuation for its French language rules, with no exceptions.[10] This is consistent with the history of French spacing.

The 2006 German language style guide Empfehlungen des Rats für deutsche Rechtschreibung, or "Recommendations of the Council for German Orthography", does not address the use of spacing after the terminal punctuation of a sentence.[11] However, the manual itself uses one space after terminal punctuation. The absence of a statement regarding this convention is likely because the two-space convention was not prescribed in historical German style guides. Additionally, the Duden, the German language dictionary most commonly used in Germany,[12] indicates that the use of a double space following terminal punctuation is incorrect.[13] The Duden was the primary orthography and style guide dictionary in Germany until the German orthography reform of 1996 created a multinational council for German orthography for German-speaking countries—composed of experts from Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. The current version of the Duden reflects the most recent opinions of this council.

A widely used United Kingdom style guide, the MHRA Style Guide, states that "Double spaces should not be used in normal text, and should be eliminated from your copy before submission. In particular, type only a single space between the end of a sentence and the first character of the next."[14]

U.S. government style guides

The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) was authorized by an act of Congress to "determine the form and style of Government Printing".[15] The 2000 and 2008 editions of the Government Printing Office's (GPO) Style Manual are unequivocal in their guidance regarding this convention: "A single justified word space will be used between sentences. This applies to all types of composition." The last known official United States government document to specifically prescribe double spaces after concluding puncutation was a 1959 government style guide. It indicated that sentences should use the em space evenly when typeset, defining a double-space as a synonym for an em space.[16] The use of the single-space convention is corroborated in various governmental style guides such as the U.S. Navy Style Guide which mandates the use of "only one space after all forms of punctuation".[17]

General and academic style guides

The Chicago Manual of Style is a comprehensive and widely used style manual for American English writing, and has been called the "standard of the book publishing industry".[18] The 15th edition, published in 2003, provides guidance on this topic in two contexts. In a section titled "Keyboarding: General Instructions", the manual states that "a single character space" should be used between sentences for both "manuscript and in final, published form".[19] Chicago provides further guidance in a section titled "Other Typographical Matters":

6.11 Space between sentences.

In typeset matter, one space, not two (in other words, a regular word space), follows any mark of punctuation that ends a sentence, whether a period, a colon, a question mark, an exclamation point, or closing quotation marks.[20]

The Turabian Style, published as the Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, is widely used in academic writing. The 7th Edition, published in 2007, stipulates that the use of periods, question marks, and exclamation points as "terminal punctuation" to end a sentence should be followed by a single space.[21]

The Modern Language Association (MLA) tolerates either one or two spaces after the "concluding punctuation marks" of a sentence. However, a 2009 statement by the MLA online notes that it expressly uses a single space after concluding punctuation in its MLA writing style examples. This statement also gives guidance for authors in that "Publications in the United States today usually have the same spacing after a punctuation mark as between words on the same line", and "some publishers' guidelines for preparing electronic manuscripts ask authors to type only the spaces that are to appear in print."[22]

Scientific style guides

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is a widely used style guide that is favored by the social sciences in the United States. Although 2009 saw a number of changes and reversals for certain aspects of its style recommendations,[23] the current guidance from the American Psychological Association (APA) as of July 2009 is a recommendation to use two spaces for draft manuscripts and work.[24] This recommendation does not apply "to the published, or final version, of a work", where the spacing convention is determined by the publication designer.[25] Since U.S. publishers of print media typically use the single space convention, this means that any drafts prepared with the double-space convention would have to be converted to the single space convention for final publication.[26] The APA also notes that "the usual convention for published works remains one space after each period",[27] and that the practice of publishers removing extra spaces from a manuscript prior to publication "is a routine part of the manuscript preparation process here at the APA".[28]

Other scientific style guides offer similar advice. The 2006 edition of the Style Manual for Political Science, published by the American Political Science Association, states that "One space, not two, should follow all punctuation that ends a sentence."[29] The 2nd edition of the American Sociological Association Style Guide, published by the American Sociological Association (ASA), provides guidance to use "only one space after all punctuation–periods and colons should not be followed by two spaces."[30]

In the United States, there are a variety of legal writing style guides available. According to the Chicago Manual of Style, The Bluebook is the "most widely used [legal] citation guide" in the United States.[31] The 2006 version of this guide to legal citations does not directly address spacing after the terminal punctuation of a sentence, although it does provide actual citation examples from court documents—some of which are single-spaced and some of which are double sentence spaced. A key statement in this guide, which addresses possible preferential differences between courts that require document submissions, notes that "Many state and federal courts promulgate local citation rules, which take precedence over Bluebook rules in documents submitted to those courts."[32] Various other legal style guides provide non-committal positions on this topic, such as the 2006 version of the ALWD Citation Manual, which has been "widely adopted by law-school writing courses".[33] This guide provides limited coverage on punctuation, referring readers to other style manuals that prescribe single sentence spacing.[34] The Guide to Legal Writing Style (2007) also does not directly address this topic.[35]

Some legal style guides do provide guidance on sentence spacing, such as the 2009 edition of the AP Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law, and the 2006 edition of The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style—both of which state that a single space follows terminal punctuation.[36] The Redbook provides further details on the use of this convention: "The custom during the reign of the typewriter was to insert two spaces between sentences" due to the use by typewriters of monospaced fonts that are not effective at creating readable text. It indicates that users could continue the use of two spaces if using a typewriter "or the Courier font", and espouses the advantages of widely available proportional fonts which are degraded by the use of two spaces after terminal punctuation.[37] Of the legal style guides listed in this section, all use proportional fonts with a single space between sentences in their text.[38]

Professional style guides

A number of style guides exist to provide writing standards for various professions. For example, the 2004 edition of the Associated Press Stylebook calls for a single space following the terminal punctuation of a sentence.[39] For copyeditors, the 2nd edition of the Copyeditor's Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate Communications, published in 2006, states that users should "delete any extra word spacing before or after punctuation marks" and that "The conventions are: One space follows a sentence-ending punctuation mark."[40]

Multiple style guides exist within the United States health care industry. The 2007 edition of the AMA Manual of Style is a comprehensive work which includes a separate section on typography. Although the manual does not provide specific guidance regarding sentence spacing, it provides examples of single-spaced journal pages used for American Medical Association (AMA) publications to show standard AMA elements of design.[41] The 2007 edition of the Health Professional's Style Manual also does not directly address this topic—referring users to specific style manuals such as the Chicago Manual of Style, the APA style manual, and the Elements of Style.[42]

The Gregg Reference Manual is a style manual intended for business professionals. The most recent edition, published in 2005, provides detailed guidance for sentence spacing. Its general guidance indicates that, "The standard for proportional fonts has always been the same: use only one space between the period and the start of the next sentence" and "now that the standards of desktop publishing predominate, the use of only one space after the period is quite acceptable with monospace fonts."[43] However, although the author states that one space is correct in draft manuscripts for typesetting and most other instances, certain specific cases might benefit from additional space between sentences.[44]

Other style guides

There are various works that provide design guidance for websites. The 2008 edition of the Web Style Guide does not discuss spacing after the terminal punctuation of a sentence, although it provides a chapter on typography. In this section, the authors assert that "the basic rules of typography are much the same for both web pages and conventional print documents."[45] Although the guide does not specifically recommend against the use of monospaced fonts, only proportional fonts are presented as "common screen fonts" and those "designed for the screen".[46] Finally, although HTML ignores additional spacing after the terminal punctuation of a sentence, the authors caution against custom fonts and typefaces because most users' browsers will default to a font defined by their operating system.[47]

A number of United States style guides do not provide guidance on this convention, especially those that are smaller in scope and rely on other, more comprehensive style guides to provide a framework. However, some of these style guides are well-known, including the 4th edition of Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, a widely used general style guide, which is silent in reference to typography and spacing between sentences.[48] Other U.S. style guides that do not address sentence spacing include, Scientific Style And Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, And Publishers,[49] the AMA Manual of Style,[50] the Wall Street Journal Essential Guide to Business Style and Usage (2002),[51] the New York Times Manual of Style and Usage,[52] REA's Handbook of English Grammar, Style, and Writing (2009),[53] and the American Sociological Society Style Guide (2007).[54] The Economist Style Guide (2005), published in the United Kingdom, also provides no guidance on this topic.[55] All of these guides themselves use single sentence spacing in their text.


References

  1. ^ Theodore Rosendorf (2010). "The Double Space Debate". Type Desk. Retrieved 23 March 2010.
  2. ^ University of Chicago Press (2003). The Chicago Manual of Style: The Essential Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers (15th ed.). Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. p. 243. ISBN 978-0-226-10403-4.; Einsohn, Amy (2006). The Copyeditor's Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate Communications (2nd ed.). Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press. p. 113. ISBN 9780520246881.; Shushan, Ronnie; Wright, Don (1989). Desktop Publishing by Design. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press. p. 34. ISBN 015556151349. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: length (help)
  3. ^ Stevenson 2005. p. viii.
  4. ^ Fogarty, Mignon (2008). Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing (Quick and Dirty Tips). New York: Holt Paperbacks. p. 85. ISBN 9780805088311.
  5. ^ John S. Rhodes (13 May 1999). "One Versus Two Spaces After a Period". Webword.com. Retrieved 21 March 2010.; Kristi Leonard; et al. (1 February 2003). "The Effects of Computer-based Text Spacing on Reading Comprehension and Reading Rate". IVLA. Retrieved 1 February 2010. {{cite web}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |author= (help)
  6. ^ *Modern Language Association (15 January 2009). "How many spaces should I leave after a period or other concluding mark of punctuation?". Modern Language Association. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  7. ^ Felici 2003. p. 81; Strizver 2010; Weiderkehr, Sarah (30 July 2009). "On Two Spaces Following a Period". American Psychological Association. Retrieved 29 January 2010.; Williams, Robin (1995). "Thirteen Telltale Signs" (PDF). Adobe Magazine. Adobe. Retrieved 10 February 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help); Williams 2003. p. 14.
  8. ^ John Wiley & Sons Australia (2007). Style Manual: For Authors, Editors and Printers (6th ed.). John Wiley & Sons Australia. p. 153. ISBN 9780701636487.
  9. ^ Dundurn Press in co-operation with Public Works and the Government Services Canada Translation Bureau (1997). The Canadian Style: A Guide to Writing and Editing. Toronto and Oxford: J. Kirk Howard. p. 113. ISBN 1-55002-276-8.
  10. ^ Dundurn Press 1997. p. 293.
  11. ^ "Deutsche Rechtschreibung" (PDF) (in German). Retrieved 19 January 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ Bibliographisches Institut AG. "Über Duden". Retrieved 19 January 2010.
  13. ^ Bibliographisches Institut AG. "Duden – Deutsche Sprache". Retrieved 19 January 2010.
  14. ^ Modern Humanities Research Association (2002). MHRA Style Guide: A Handbook for Authors, Editors, and Writers of Theses. Leeds, UK: Maney Publishing. p. 6. ISBN 0947623620.
  15. ^ "U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual". 23 April 2009. Retrieved 4 February 2010.
  16. ^ United States Government Printing Office Style Manual (1959), paragraph 2.36.1.
  17. ^ United States. "U.S. Navy Style Guide "Punctuation"". Retrieved 17 January 2010.
  18. ^ "Manuscripts: Saving Time and Money 1". The Copyeditor's Desk: Editing, Proofreading, Indexing, Publication Consulting. Retrieved 3 February 2010.
  19. ^ University of Chicago Press, Chicago Manual of Style 2003. p. 61.
  20. ^ University of Chicago Press, Chicago Manual of Style 2003. p. 243.
  21. ^ Turabian, Kate L. (2007). Booth, Wayne C.; Colomb, Gregory G.; Williams, Joseph M. (eds.). A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (7th ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 296, 302–303. ISBN 9780226823379.
  22. ^ Modern Language Association 2009
  23. ^ Although earlier editions of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association provide for the use of a single space following the terminal punctuation of a sentence, the widely criticized 6th Edition, published in 2009, changed the convention to two spaces. (American Psychological Association, Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association 6th Edition. American Psychological Association ISBN 9781433805615. p. 88.) For the controversy surrounding the First Printing of the 6th edition of the APA's Publication Manual, see, for example, Tara D. Hudson, "The APA's Reputation Management in the Wake of the Error-Laden 6th Edition of its Ubiquitous Publication Manual", [1] in Crisis! Communication: Theories and Practice. 25 October 2009. Accessed 31 January 2010., and Customer Reviews: Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association Sixth Edition, [2] Amazon.com. Accessed 31 January 2010. Soon after the publication of the 6th Edition, the American Psychological Association published nineteen pages of corrections for academic papers online, (see American Psychological Association, Corrected Sample Papers, [3] Accessed 31 January 2010.) as well as eight pages of online corrections called "Errors in APA Style Rules" prior to issuing a corrected second printing of the 6th Edition of the Publication Manual in late 2009.
  24. ^ American Psychological Association. "Corrections to the First Printing of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition (July 2009)" (PDF). American Psychological Association. p. 6. Retrieved 1 February 2010.
  25. ^ American Psychological Association (29 June 2009). "APA Style:Who We Are". Retrieved 16 January 2010.
  26. ^ Fogarty 2008. p. 85.
  27. ^ Sarah Weiderkehr (30 July 2009). "On Two Spaces Following a Period". American Psychological Association. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  28. ^ American Psychological Association (8 October 2009). "APA Style Blog: Style experts from the American Psychological Association share tips and background about writing in APA style". American Psychological Association. Retrieved 31 January 2009.
  29. ^ American Political Science Association (August 2006). "Style Manual for Political Science" (PDF). Retrieved 16 January 2010.
  30. ^ American Sociological Association Style Guide (2nd ed.). Washington D.C.: American Sociological Association. 1997. p. 11. ISBN 0912764295. The ASA style guide encompasses all ASA publications incuding "eight journals", "various directories" and other "substantive, academic, teaching, and career publications" (i).
  31. ^ University of Chicago Press, Chicago Manual of Style 2003. p. 728.
  32. ^ Columbia Law Review; Harvard Law Review; University of Pennsylvania Law Review; Yale Law review, eds. (2005). The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation. Massachusetts: The Harvard Law Review Association. p. v.
  33. ^ ALWD & Darby Dickerson (2006). ALWD Citation Manual (3d ed.). New York: Aspen Publishers. pp. 7, 9. ISBN 0735555710.; University of Chicago Press, Chicago Manual of Style 2003. p. 728.
  34. ^ ALWD 2006. pps. 7,9. The AWLD Citation Manual refers users to the United States Government Office Style Manual, the Chicago Manual of Style ... or The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style for "additional guidance on matters of style, punctuation and other writing conventions". These three style guides all indicate that a single space is proper between sentences.
  35. ^ LeClerq, Terri (2007). Guide to Legal Writing Style (4th ed.). New York: Aspen Publishers. ISBN 9780735568372.
  36. ^ Christian, Darrell; Jacobsen, Sally; Minthorn, David, eds. (2009). The AP Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law (44th ed.). Philadelphia: Basic Books. p. 361. ISBN 9780465012626. The AP Stylebook indicates that adherents should "Use a single space after a period at the end of a sentence." Garner 2006. p. 83. The Redbook directs users to use "one space between words and one space after punctuation marks (including colons and periods)".
  37. ^ Garner 2006. p. 83.
  38. ^ The only exceptions, as noted, are the actual citation examples in the Bluebook, some of which are double-spaced.
  39. ^ Associated Press (2004) AP Stylebook New York: Basic Books, p. 334-335.
  40. ^ Einsohn 2006. pps. 113.
  41. ^ American Medical Association (2007). AMA Manual of Style: A Guide for Authors and Editors (10th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 919–920. ISBN 9780195176339.
  42. ^ Fondiller 2007. p. 135.
  43. ^ Sabin 2005. p. 5.
  44. ^ Sabin 2005. p. 5–6, 10, 12–13, 91.
  45. ^ Lynch, Patrick J.; Horton, Sarah (2008). Web Style Guide. New Haven & London: Yale University Press. p. 205. ISBN 978-0-300-13737-8.
  46. ^ Lynch and Horton 2008. p. 219.
  47. ^ Lynch and Horton 2008. pps. 217–218. Users can force HTML to recognize the extra space by inputting a formula—in the case of a double word space, by using the characters: " &nbsp"; Character entity references in HTML 4
  48. ^ Strunk, E. B.; White (1999). The Elements of Style (4th ed.). Longman. ISBN 9780205313426. {{cite book}}: More than one of |first1= and |first= specified (help)
  49. ^ Council of Science Editors, Style Manual Committee (2006). Scientific Style And Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers (7th ed.). Reston, VA: Council of Science Editors. ISBN 9780977966509. {{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  50. ^ American Medical Association (2007). AMA Manual of Style: A Guide for Authors and Editors (10th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195176339.
  51. ^ Martin, Paul R., ed. (2002). The Wall Street Journal Essential Guide to Business Style and Usage. New York: Free Press. ISBN 0743212959.
  52. ^ Siegal, Allan M.; Connoly, William G. (1999). The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage (Revised and Expanded ed.). New York: The New York Times. ISBN 0812963881.
  53. ^ Staff of REA (2009). REA's Handbook of English Grammar, Style, and Writing (Revised ed.). Research and Education Association. ISBN 9780878915521.
  54. ^ American Sociological Association (2007). American Sociological Society Style Guide (3rd ed.). American Sociological Association. ISBN 9780912764306.
  55. ^ The Economist Style Guide. London: Profile Books. 2005. ISBN 1861979169.
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