Dear Gentle Readers,
I have some troubling information to report. This might not be new to you all but It is the first I've ever heard of it. I read in the November 2006 issue of The Atlantic (the central perk of hospital job is the endless supply of magazines I would normally never pick up) that the standard of publishing whether in print or on the web is to have just one space after a sentence. "This wasn't always the case." Well, that made me feel better, since I've always put two spaces after my sentences, but then I read on. "You can find extra space between sentences in books from as late as the 1960s." Since the 1960s? Really? Why, if it has been the professional standard since the 1960s, was I taught to always put two spaces at the end of a sentence? Am I the only one? Granted, my typing class was taken my freshmen year of high school (which is now 14 years ago!) and was taught by a football coach but... How come I never knew this? I think it would be exceedingly difficult to try to break this habit. Maybe that's why I could never bring my WPM past 80 even though I think I type really really fast. Maybe those faster typers are just cheating by only putting one space after their sentences. This would slow me down at first, as I have been accustomed to the two spaces. But soon I would get used to it and like a flash I would be typing. Like a flash. It might put me up to 81 or 82 words a minute. Maybe. You never know. It makes me look back at this typing test I took at a temp agency a few years back. The lady said, make sure you only put one space at the end of your sentences, the test will be scored incorrectly if you don't. I was very upset by this. Why build a typing test that tests people all wrong? Turns out, I was the one in the wrong. On the other hand, think of all the papers I've written that were shorter than my peers simply because I added a space where they only had one. Ha Ha! Losers!
March 24, 2007
Spaces:A Poll
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9 comments:
I was also always taught to put two spaces after a period. Blogger automatically eliminates one of those spaces, and it irritates me, but still, in defiance, I put two spaces. Also, I was taught to put a space between each period in an ellipsis. . . I noticed that you did not do that in this post. Which of us is right? Generally, it is me. But that is just generally.
Isn't your dad an English teacher? I bet he would know. Which begs the questiom--Who would be on your list of three "phone-a-friend"s if you got onto Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
Also, please ask your dad if I should have capitalized "To" "Be" and "A" in Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? I can never remember which little words you're not supposed to capitalize in a title. I think it's unfair to only capitalize the longer words, but I could be wrong. Though, generally, I'm not.
1. My dad
2. Sara
3. Will
Will????????????????? Will?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Don't you know that I am the queen of all trivia? Most Valuable Player Challenge of the Minds 1995? Not to mention Brain Brawl. Not to mention the fact that I could kick anybody ass at Jeopardy that you know or who have ever met in your life. Will? What the hell is wrong with you??? The efrontery! ary. I'll ask popso about the to and the be but I am pretty sure they are not capitalized. also, in regards to elipses I have never heard of such a thing. Spaces between elipses? Wha? I know that if you are cutting out a few words from a quote you use three periods but if you are cutting out a whole sentence you use four. Did you know that? Well?
Will??? I can't even stand it!!!
Oh, my list would be, in the ridiculous chance that I should even have to use a lifeline,
1.Justin (way better than Will in all matters of trivia especially when time is not as much of an issue)
2. My Mother
3. My Sister (Both of whom can actually beat me at Jeopardy given the right circumstances)
Will?????????? Lord on high. You would never ever win.
Will all the way, Man(dy). I took a class with him and we studied for the final together, and as I was pulling out pages and pages of notes and not remembering shitballs about any of it, he had one page of notes, double or even tripled spaced for the whole semester and he remebered every gadbedamned thing that professor said just right out of his pretty little head. I bet he could even remember that professor's name, if you asked him. I certainly can't. Well, from that moment on I pledged that Will would be on my phone-a-friend list and I've never waivered, not once. That was in May of 1999. That's almost eight years, and I still believe in him.
Also, I take my phone-a-friend list very seriously. You can't have people with too similar of knowledgable areas, and they have to be quick and confident in their answers. You only have 30-seconds. My sister and my dad are too similar and my sister lacks confidence in her Trivial Pursuit answers, even though she's usually right, but it would make me nervous if she was all, "I'm only 30% sure it's papules. . .". Steve has a lot of good politics/pop culture knowledge, but he also just makes stuff up and sounds super confident about it. Can't trust him. Justin would probably use up the 30 seconds making you listen to the latest Indigo Girls live show from Bonnaroo. Or whatever it is you kids listen to on your MTV.
Sara's good all around. I can give you her phone number.
from: http://www.getitwriteonline.com/archive/101805.htm
"The ellipsis can consist of either three or four periods, or 'dots.' A single dot is called an ellipsis point. An ellipsis that indicates the omission of one or more words within a sentence consists of three spaced dots. In this case, in addition to the spaces between the dots, we put a space before the first ellipsis point and after the last one as well."
"Another use for the ellipsis is to indicate that a sentence trails off, unfinished: "We thought the doors were locked, but just to be sure . . ." This type of terminal ellipsis always consists of three spaced dots, rather than four, with no space between the last dot and the closing quotation marks."
But from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellipsis
"Bringhurst writes that a full space between each dot is 'another Victorian eccentricity.' In most contexts, the Chicago ellipsis is much too wide" — he recommends using flush dots, or thin-spaced dots"
I know she just doesn't know and understand all that I know and understand but would somebody please inform marigold, aka aunt faintly, that I am no longer speaking to her.
I have a plaque, for chrissakes! A plaque proving my prowess! A Plaque!!!!!!!!!!! But as I said before, I am no longer speaking to Marigold and will no longer engage in this conversation.
Marigold told me to tell you that the only thing Brawling Brains qualifies you for is low birthweight children and being the retarded greeter at Walmart. Her words. Not mine.
And what about me? I am 93% correct 78% of the time on 84% of all categories. Even if I have to guess. I have a terrific memory, but sometimes I can't remember specifics. So I make them up. SO WHAT!?!
Here's the rules from me to the internet world -
1) Two spaces after a period. Always.
2) Always a space between "dots" in an ellipsis.
3) There is nothing "semi" about my colon.
This is the first I ever heard of one space between sentences. That is ludicrous. And wrong. I know it's wrong because Microsoft's Office grammar check puts two spaces. And Bill Gates knows everything.
No, really. In law school you would get marked down a half grade for only putting one space. Seriously. Please don't tell me society has deteriorated this far in a scant two decades or whatever.
If I were on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (note proper capitalization, Aunt Faintly), I would make sure that you, Mawa, Gerry, Nicki, Murph, Myles and mom were all at the same house and had a speaker phone. That would be one call. My friend Red would be the next, just in case there was a sports question. And I might have to choose a science/math geek for the 3rd, just in case.
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