Extra Space

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January 24, 2011

“Typing two spaces after a period is totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong.”

Farhad Manjoo believes you should “never, ever” use a double space after a period.

Isaac Fitzgerald

Isaac Fitzgerald has been a firefighter, worked on a boat, and was once given a sword by a king, thereby accomplishing three out of five of his childhood goals. Formerly of The Rumpus and McSweeneyâ€™s and most recently the founding editor of BuzzFeed Books, Isaac is now the co-host of BuzzFeed Newsâ€™ Twitter Morning Show, #AMtoDM. He also appears frequently on The Today Show to talk books, and is co-author of Pen & Ink: Tattoos and the Stories Behind Them and Knives & Ink: Chefs and the Stories Behind Their Tattoos (with Recipes) (winner of an IACP award), and the author of a YA novel and picture book forthcoming from Bloomsbury. He uses Twitter.

One response

Ray

January 24, 2011

I understand why two spaces are wrong, and I also understand why people still do it; a few decades worth of muscle memory is hard to change.

What I don’t understand is why it is suddenly so trendy to get worked up into a frothing self-righteous rage over it, like it was gay marriage or Kenyan presidents or something.

Sometimes I remember to type one space. Sometimes I type two out of habit. And sometimes I type two out of spite, just because the Farhads of the world annoy me so.