One space or two after a period bluebook

The following information regarding the bluebook citation format is an adapted version of the style and formatting guidelines found in the bluebook, 20th ed. Many, many computer users automatically put two spaces after every period, colon, or closing quotation mark, not realizing that the space designed into punctuation already takes into account the extra gap needed after the end of a sentence, so one space, not two, is correct. Books, magazines, newspapers, advertisements, and anything else created by professionals in typographic design use one space after periods. Number one is that the automatic spacing after a period in word. If you are someone who cant break your two spaces after a period habit, have no fear. The bluebook is not comprehensive for citing laws everywhere.

Effective punctuation handout 1 columbia law school. The period is perhaps the easiest punctuation mark to master. Ftr, i am 100% on team one space, and if you say two spaces, youre simply wrong. The doublespace rule went out with the typewriterand theres a logical reason for that. Otherwise, youll just get a notice when you explicitly run a spelling and grammar check you must have check grammar with spelling enabled. Always place two spaces no more, no less after a period or other punctuation ending a sentence. But if a closing quotation mark immediately follows any one of these marks, dont insert a space between the two marks. How do i default to 2 spaces after a period in word. If you refuse to alter your bullheadedness, i will petition the.

About six years ago, an editor at ragan sent me an email asking me to stop using two spaces after my periods when submitting my columns to the ragan report. Otherwise, youll just get a notice when you explicitly run a spelling and grammar check you. Difficulty generally arises only when the period is used with other punctuation marks. And they, in turn, pass the rule along to the next generation of writers. The space needed after these punctuation marks is proportioned automatically. Keep clicking replace all until there are no more replacements. When writing a screenplay is it one or two spaces after a period. Each paragraph was between 71 and 166 words long and was presented in 14 point courier new font. Style manual both of which the blue book point to when its silent.

The bad news is that one em space is bigger than two regular spaces. Supra refers to material that has already appeared in the document and it has its own rule at 4. Historical style guides before the 20th century typically indicated that wider spaces were. I just looked at six screenplays that have sold in the last 18 months. Previously apa was one space after the period in all documents and recently changed back to two for draft manuscripts. People began inserting two spaces after the period during the era of the typewriter. This has been standard typesetting practice for several hundred years. And when the period appears after a thin character, such as a lowercase l, the space between the two becomes quite large. Apparently, requiring two spaces after a period is a timehonored mistake. Oct 31, 2016 the apa also notes, the usual convention for published works remains one space after each period,3. Many lawyers are sharply divided on this issue, with opinions often breaking along generational lines based on when the lawyer originally learned how to type. Jun 10, 2015 after my podcast explaining why we now put one space after a period at the end of a sentence, rebecca wrote in to ask how many spaces go after a colon just as with the period, it used to be common to put two spaces after a colon, but now most style guides that address the matter e.

Apr 15, 2014 ending the debate, by david brickert and why two spaces after a period isnt wrong, by a writer at heraclitean river. The supreme courts guide notes the bluebook provides a useful reference for rules governing citations of types of materials not covered in this style manual, but. When writing a screenplay is it one or two spaces after a. The chicago manual of style online is the venerable, timetested guide to style, usage, and grammar in an accessible online format. The majority of style guides that use a latinderived alphabet as a language base now prescribe or recommend the use of a single space after the concluding punctuation of a sentence. The effect of spacing following periods and commas during reading. At least in minnesota, for example, the minnesota supreme court and court of appeals use two spaces after periods. Bluebook, the legal style manual, doesnt have a rule on space after periods. My overlords here at atl thought it would be fun to run a poll about whether there should be one space or two after a period. Published work these days rarely features two spaces after a period.

If you want to fix occurrences of a single space between sentences, you can use the find and replace feature to search for a period followed by a single space and replace it with a period followed by two spaces. Sentence spacing guidance is provided in many language and style guides. Now that everything is written on computers using fonts that do not have the limitations of typewriters, documents are now more readable if there is only one space after the period. 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. Mar 27, 20 two spaces after a period is dead and has been for as long as ive been in publishing. The bluebook also has citation rules for legal memoranda and other practiceoriented materials the blue pages, which students in lrwa2. The judge, for example, may herself use two spaces between sentences, not understand why you are using only one space, and consider you illinformed. If you have check grammar as you type enabled, i think this will cause instances of a single space after a period to be marked with a wavy green underline. When and why did we suddenly stop putting 2 spaces after a. Sentence spacing in language and style guides wikipedia.

Hopefully, we are communicating with others who speak our citation language. May 01, 2018 when readers did linger on the area of texts with two spaces after a period, it was for a shorter period of time than they tended to linger on areas of texts with one space after the period. Lots of people still do it because it used to be a rule, and thats how they were taught. But cmos 15 2003 was the first edition to make an explicit recommendation for one space after a period or a colon in typed manuscripts. When you elide a portion that runs until the end of a sentence, include the punctuation at the end of the sentence. Tex typesets an intersentence space after a period unless the period follows a capital letter as in initials or it is instructed otherwise. Lawyers are sharply divided on spacing between sentences when writing a paper.

The apa also notes, the usual convention for published works remains one space after each period,3. Lawyers should put only one space after periods and the same rule applies to all punctuation. Double spacing after a period could reveal your age. Sentence spacing is the space between sentences in typeset text. May 06, 2015 word will now flag each occurrence of a single space after a period, whether it be at the end of a sentence or elsewhere. Some say even in a monospaced font this is unnecessary. Over the years, i have heard that this has been used as. Dec 30, 20 the doublespace rule went out with the typewriterand theres a logical reason for that. And ive never seen a minnesota federal judge use only one space after a period. Ending the debate, by david brickert and why two spaces after a period isnt wrong, by a writer at heraclitean river. May 05, 2011 some professionals like using two spaces because it looks better. For the most part, when one begins to cite uncommon resources or laws that are far.

Lawyers who like to get worked up over unimportant issues often grow contentious in their opinions over whether to put one space or two spaces after the period in legal documents. The chicago manual of style, the us government printing office style manual, and the ap stylebook are just a few of the style guides that recommend one space after a period. How to add two spaces after a period automatically in word 20. The nation was rocked this week by a paradigmshattering study. This work is licensed under a creative commons attributionnoncommercial 2. We just had this debate in the chambers i am interning in.

Ugly legal writing, see webinar american bar association. This means youre free to copy and share these comics but not to sell them. One thing that apparently still has the power to infuriate people, though, is how many spaces should be used after a period at the end of an english sentence. Legalwriting nerds have been bemoaning lawyers use of two spaces after a period for years. In typeset matter, one space, not two, should be used between two sentenceswhether the first ends in a period, a question mark, an exclamation point, or a closing quotation mark or parenthesis. See table in the back of the bluebook for the correct abbreviations of periodical titles. Actually academia and law style books dont require two spaces. In favor of two spaces many nonlawyers are debating the spacing issue in the context of other forms of writing as well. While the supreme courts guide expresses no opinion about the bluebook business model, it does have a complicated relationship with the bluebook system of citation. The story of spaces after periods is often told as though monospaced typewriter fonts needed two spaces after a sentence for good readability, and that the wide availability of. Historical style guides before the 20th century typically indicated that wider spaces were to be used between sentences. A double space after a sentence helped things look more uniform.

In endnotes, citation sentences begin one space after a textual proposition. All highend frontend typesetting systems automatically truncate two spaces to one space but ms word does not and if you put two spaces after a period youll end up with four spaces in justified type. So if youre still sigh putting two spaces after every sentence, please read. Jun 25, 2019 lawyers who like to get worked up over unimportant issues often grow contentious in their opinions over whether to put one space or two spaces after the period in legal documents. Some people prefer one space after the period at the end of a sentence. If a sentence otherwise ends with a question mark or exclamation point, the period is omitted.

In monospaced fonts, the letters are all the same width, so an i is the same width as an m, but in. Some professionals like using two spaces because it looks better. It turns out that whether you use one space or two may depend upon your age. I declare it once and for all aesthetically more appealing to have two spaces after a period.

Simply write as you always would with two spaces and, when you are finished, got to the toolbar of your word processing program, click edit find replace and then choose to replace all double spaces with single. With a computer, use only one space following periods, commas, semicolons, colons, exclamation points, question marks, and quotation marks. May 09, 2018 lets set aside whether one space or two spaces is right. But if you begin a new sentence after a citation, that new sentence will be two spaces after the citation. After my podcast explaining why we now put one space after a period at the end of a sentence, rebecca wrote in to ask how many spaces go after a colon just as with the period, it used to be common to put two spaces after a colon, but now most style guides that address the matter e. May 02, 2018 it turns out that whether you use one space or two may depend upon your age.

The sample typewritten manuscript page in cmos 1982 shows two spaces after a period. May 11, 2018 one thing that apparently still has the power to infuriate people, though, is how many spaces should be used after a period at the end of an english sentence. Aug 01, 2019 generally, citation rules are all a bit weird since the aim is to represent a resource in as small a space as possible. The bluebook says nothing about doublespacing, and it follows the onespace rule both in its own text and in its examples. Therefore, many of us were taught to place a second space after a period. At an average of 18 words per sentence, thats about 15,555 sentences, and hence two vs one space after each will add that many characters a word has on average 5 characters. Word will now flag each occurrence of a single space after a period, whether it be at the end of a sentence or elsewhere. Mla and chicago manual of style, as well as ap, use one space. This was just a necessary result of the mechanics of typing with such a machine. Standard word spaces were about onethird of an em space, but sentences were to be divided by a full emspace. How to add two spaces after a period automatically in word. One space appears to be more correct, is widely used, and required by all of the major style guides including the.

May 07, 2018 3 two spaces after periods, one space after commas. Apr 06, 2012 the judge, for example, may herself use two spaces between sentences, not understand why you are using only one space, and consider you illinformed. Debate continues rages would be hyperbolic over whether one space or two is more readable, but typographers agree that a single space between sentences makes. And when only one space is placed after a period, the end of sentence becomes less noticeable. Typing two blank spaces at the end of every sentence is one such habit.

Some prefer two spaces and some prefer one space after a period. Infra refers to material that appears later in the document, but never for books see r15. That means that if the publisher used two spaces after a period, theyd be adding roughly 3000 extra words, which translates into an extra 10ish pages. Nothing says over 40 like two spaces after a period. But for most kinds of writing, the twospace habit is, in fact, no longer the rule. When readers did linger on the area of texts with two spaces after a period, it was for a shorter period of time than they tended to linger on areas of texts with one space after the period. In the skidmore study, among people who write with two spaces after periods twospacersthere was an increase in reading speed of 3 percent when reading text with two spaces following periods, as. The bluebook also has citation rules for legal memoranda and other practiceoriented materials the blue pages, which students in lrwa2 use for their memo assignments. Science has definitively found that two spaces after a period in typed text provides the most efficient reading experience for. When did cmos first recommend one space instead of two after periods and colons. As a general rule, put one space after a period, comma, colon, semicolon, question mark, or exclamation point.

With some versions of ms word the standard is that two spaces are automatically added after a period full stop with some versions of ms word the standard is that one space is inserted after a period full stop in the olden days, 2 spaces were used as a means of working with typesetting machines think gutenberg press. And many people were taught to use that extra space in typing class. In the piece i noted that the ap stylebook, chicago manual of style, and mla style manual all recommend using one space. It is the indispensable reference for writers, editors, proofreaders, indexers, copywriters, designers, and publishers, informing the editorial canon with sound, definitive advice. A period piece by jay shepherd my overlords here at atl thought it would be fun to run a poll about whether there should be one space or two after a period. Not directly addressed, but single space in bluebook itself. With publishers dropping the second space and proportionalpitch fonts smoothing the blocky appearance of courier, most of us began to insert but one space. Lets set aside whether one space or two spaces is right.

Some lawyers are surprised to hear this, but the surprise stems from the fact that theyre used to doublespacing, and not because of any authority to the contrary. This is a variable space that is normally wider than an interword space. Oxford comma writers disagree on whether lists of three or more should include a comma before the and or or and the last item in the list. Shortly after the invention of movable type, highly variable spacing was. Bluebook citation for llm students bluebook citation for. Chicago manual of style spaces after period rutrackerenergy. The point is, its not only widely accepted, its expected that you use only one space after a period. Perhaps for this reason, some style manuals notably the bluebook and the. Bluebook, the legal style manual, doesnt have a rule on space after periods, but defers to the chicago manual one space. After i read this slate article written by farhad manjoo strongly supporting onespacing a few years ago, i posted one space, two spacespotato, potahto. I found the onespace rule in the 15th edition, but i remember hearing. Blue pages this guide covers the bluebook s white pages, which provide citation rules for academic papers. Microsoft word in the april 2020 update will highlight two spaces after a period as an error, and offer a correction of one space. Two spaces after a period is dead and has been for as long as ive been in publishing.

This also meant, though, that the spacing between certain words or a period and the first word of a sentence would appear larger or smaller depending on which letter was used to endbegin a word. Bill hill gives his opinion on why you only put one space after a period. Doublespacing after a period, if crime it be, is a crime against. However, the manual itself uses one space after terminal punctuation. Debate about two spaces after a period in legal writing. A manual on style by bryan garner recomends one space after periods. Blue pages this guide covers the bluebooks white pages, which provide citation rules for academic papers.

Two spaces after a period may be better than one the. Therefore, most of us who do this i have taught myself to stop putting two spaces after a period and it was hard are over 50 years of age. In the era when type was set by hand, it was common to use extra space sometimes quite a bit of it after periods, a practice that continued into the first half of the twentieth century. As a legal marketer i often times debate with partners over whether or not its periodspace or periodspacespace in a document. In an earlier era, writers using a typewriter commonly left two spaces after a period, a question mark, or an. May 08, 2015 the story of spaces after periods is often told as though monospaced typewriter fonts needed two spaces after a sentence for good readability, and that the wide availability of proportional fonts on computers led to the switch to one space. With the arrival of the typewriter in the late 19th century, style guides for writers began diverging from printers manuals, indicating that writers.