Forum Topic

Full Stop Shock!

My husband printed off something he had written and asked me to check it.  I said he needed to put 2 spaces after a full stop.  He said he never does, and always puts one space only.
I looked on the internet and it said you can tell someone is over 40, if they use 2 spaces after a full stop. Everyone under 40 uses one space. As someone who trained as a secretary and passed typing exams, I don’t think I can cope with this.  Only one space, it’s just not right.

Martine Guy ● 417d19 Comments

Adam, that’s a good question.  I have no answer, but it is probably leftover from the Victorian times, that now and again you felt you were living in.  
I mentioned the block style of letter.  This didn’t just mean you did away with indents at the start of a paragraph, but you also did away with needless punctuation, like the comma after Dear Sir,  I really liked it, as it was modern, simpler and much easier for me typing.

Martine Guy ● 416d

This wasn't a text it was a letter.                                      From Mr. Bloggs,                                          XXXXXXXXXX                                          XXXXXXXXXXTo Mr. George,  xxxxxxxxx  xxxxxxxxx.              Re: blah blah blah.Dear Mr. Blogg,  Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party.Or block typing.Dear Mr. Blah,The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.Don't remember doing texts when I started work, only letters.                                         

Barbara Stevens ● 416d

Dear Sir or Madam,Why should one start this line of text with a capital when it follows a comma?...one for you Martine : )

Adam Tripp ● 416d

Hi Martine, if you look up LEO, J.Lyons Olympia, had one of the first computers, also a massive building, I was only 15 1/2 when I started there. Good job I had a few relations worked there. You should be able to google Cadby Hall, next to Blyth Rd and Brook Green, Hammersmith.  Think you will find Andy Pike worked there as well after me though.

Barbara Stevens ● 416d

Barbara,  Sorry, but always preferred the Block style of letter rather than Indented because it was easier to type. The Supertyper sounds awful.  That was the thing with the old style office equipment, if you made a mistake, it could be such an effort to put it right. Back in the 1960s my dad and I went on the open day at the factory he worked for.  The highlight was the computer room.  The computers were floor to ceiling and the people who worked in the room wore white coats.  It seems funny, almost quaint, now.

Martine Guy ● 416d

Hi Sue, didn't explain that very well.Dear Sir /Madam,  We are pleased to see you, come again soon.Dear Sir/Madam,We are pleased to see you, come again soon.Still did a couple of spaces in between paragraphs. I also used the Supertyper back at J.Lyons, Cadby Hall and ICL. Printing a tape you could keep in a cardboard box, so you could use the same letter again.  Very confusing, because while you were making the tape if you made a mistake, you had to find the tiny hole that was typed wrong on the tape and cover in sellotape.  Bit early in the morning for me, don't know if any of that made any sense.

Barbara Stevens ● 417d

Block typing in that way is just wrong and also looks bloody awful. I have always used two spaces. The same between paragraphs.

Sue Hammond ● 417d

Yes, fax machines are still in use; they're very popular in Japan:https://faxination.com/fax-remains-a-dominant-form-of-communication-in-these-countries/#:~:text=The%20Use%20of%20Fax%20Machines,paper%20trail%20for%20compliance%20purposes.My understanding is that the international telex system no longer exists, BT certainly no longer offer it as a service, but a Swiss company - United Telegram Services - can offer a telex service in a number of countries. http://www.swisstelex.com/Please encourage people to put two spaces after full stops so people can be paid to remove them :-)

Michael Ixer ● 417d

Yes Martine, also after working in the Typing Pool at ICL, I found it rather strange after typing Dear Sir/Madam, when you went down under neath to start the sentence, they did block typing.  Not like when I first started typing you went in a few spaces to start a paragraph or sentence.

Barbara Stevens ● 417d

Sue, fax machines, I think they are still about but like you say hardly ever used. Michael, times certainly do change, the new technology is amazing.  I don’t have a problem with it, but one space instead of two after a full stop.  Never!

Martine Guy ● 417d

It happens to us all. I had to do technical drawing and give up French at school because I chose to go into the science and maths stream. These days computer aided design has made technical drawing obsolete (not that I ever used it other than to dosome IT documentation and presentations years ago!) whereas French would have been useful on a number of occasions (I did later learn a bit at evening classes).Also, my technical IT skills of the 1970s have been largely superseded and I've had to refresh them over the years - although some of the basic fundamentals are still the same - but I'm a bit vague about the workings of quantum computers ... other than they computers all the answers to a problem for one to then be selected and are still error prone ...Anyway, hope I wasn't the bringer of too much bad news :-)

Michael Ixer ● 417d

And fax machines! So useful in their heydays, especially so when a signature was required on a document, but now hardly ever used.

Sue Hammond ● 417d

Hi Sue, yes I agree.  I don’t think I got a W.P. until the 1990s, it was such an upgrade after a golf ball typewriter.  Yes it felt very high tech. In 1981 I had to learn to use a telex machine, no emails in those days.  I wonder if I put 2 spaces or 1?  Looking back on it, I feel I was working in the Victorian times.

Martine Guy ● 417d

The first time I used a word processor was a revelation and I thought the technology was amazing even then!

Sue Hammond ● 417d

Thank you Sue and Michael. I think for those of us of a certain age group who worked in offices, this is quite something to find out and get to grips with!
Going back to the 1970’s, pre golf ball typewriters, I think of all the hours I spent learning to type.  Over and over typing the quick brown fox etc.  It was the first thing we did when we arrived at secretarial school.  We had to use carbon paper to make a copy and use a special eraser for our mistakes.  At the end of all the learning, you sat the RSA exams.  And Pitman too, if you were learning shorthand.  When golf ball typewriters came in, we thought they were so modern.  

The technology in today’s offices is incredible and takes out so much of the hard work, but really 1 space instead of 2, no way!

Martine Guy ● 417d

Martine. Er, yes, my background is technical rather punctuation and, personally, I only leave one space after a full stop. Fortunately, my wife is a professional business writer. I'm told that in the days of typewriters one could leave two spaces but in the world of word processing one leaves one space and lets the computer sort it out. (Apparently she's been paid to reduce double spaces to single ones so happy if people keep doing it!)https://www.grammarly.com/blog/punctuation-capitalization/spaces-after-period/#:~:text=How%20many%20spaces%20come%20after,space%20is%20correct%2C%20not%20two

Michael Ixer ● 417d

Of course you are correct Martine.  Sadly these days many young people hardly know how to spell properly, let alone use the correct punctuation.

Sue Hammond ● 417d

Jane, thank you.  If you put 2 spaces it looks so much better. When my husband showed me what he had printed, all the sentences looked too close together. Maybe tech. expert Michael can advise?  I never realised the punctuation rules had changed.

Martine Guy ● 417d

I agree, Martine. One space after a comma, two after a full stop.  Surely!

Jane Carter ● 417d