Language and English

From: Tothwolf <tothwolf_at_concentric.net>
Date: Fri Jan 4 19:06:55 2002

On Fri, 4 Jan 2002, Richard Erlacher wrote:

> When I was in the 8th grade, one of the courses we were required to
> take was in typing. I've never gotten particularly good at it, but I
> did learn that a period at the end of a sentence is followed by two
> spaces, for example.

I've been told that the only reason they originally taught us to use two
spaces between sentences was because a typewriter's punctuation characters
are not the same width as regular letters. This isn't true with computers,
so the two space rule does not apply.

                        It's also customary to insert a blank line between
> paragraphs. That, surely, is to enhance readability. If you want people to
> read your stuff, you've got to make it easy for them.

This also makes it easier to trim someone's email when quoting for a
reply.

-Toth
Received on Fri Jan 04 2002 - 19:06:55 GMT