I have a question for you lil. Is it no longer proper to double space after a period? It used to be standard in formal writing but I have noticed that a lot of social websites will ignore a double space. Then I saw a post on a friend's FB account that said that the only people who still used it were hopelessly out of fashion. He's the editor of kind of a hip, young magazine. Just wondering what your thoughts are on the subject.
What is "proper" changes all the time, GorGor. Some people hold out for the way they learned it from their keyboard teachers in high school. Others will embrace the new and argue eloquently for why their way is better. They can argue all they like. Proper, in this case, is 100% personal preference. Some computer programs don't care and will suck out that extra space even if you type it in. I have put two spaces after every period in this comment, but I believe when the comment shoots up onto the page, those spaces will disappear. Publishers all have their own style guides. People who want to be published will submit works according to the preference of their publishers. My students can do what they want regarding spacing after periods, providing they are consistent. Right-margin justification screws up all the spacing anyway. Perhaps I'll write about that in due course. Perhaps I'll write about the myth of what is "proper" and "no longer proper." If all you have is 140 characters of text on your cell phone, you may not have the luxury of two spaces after your periods.
I'd used double space after a period since third grade until last year, when I installed Lyx, which is a LaTeX editing tool. It wouldn't let me do double spaces, and that surprised me because it didn't even occur to me I'd been doing it. I lived in Lyx for the next week or so just to try it out and try to typeset my homework in LaTeX, but I eventually decided I didn't like Lyx, so I gave up on it. But it "cured" me of my habit of two space typing forever... after just a couple days. I still think it's fascinating how easily such an ingrained habit could be wiped away with just a little bit of negative feedback.
It's the same for me. I noticed it years ago on most social media, but it wasn't until I saw that flippant FB post by my friend that I really thought about it. I have since stopped adding them in. It's a small thing but I think it's interesting the way that tech has influenced basic typed communication on that level.it's fascinating how easily such an ingrained habit could be wiped away with just a little bit of negative feedback.