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I don't know the rules of electronic typesetting. What I read refered to
some form of manual typesetting where punctuation with tails got damaged. I
don't know if what I read was in reference to hot-metal or some other
technique.
I learned a little bit about linotype when I was child and my mother worked
for a newspaper, but the rule of two spaces, in the booklet that I haven't
seen in 16 years, was in reference to a typesetting process that damaged
punctuation and the rule was only to protect punctuation and not to preserve
a convention from earlier writing styles. My "source," as it were, also
argued for the elimination of the extra space because modern word processors
do not need to protect punctuation. I still use two spaces because two
spaces reads easier for me.
In reference to your side note of other rules, I am not a fan of unnecessary
hyphens, but they do help avoid confusion. I have seen "cooperation"
spelled as "co-operation," which is very odd, but when "co-workers" is
spelled as "coworkers," then there is an issue where a hyphen can prevent
the connotation of an unusual word.
Lauren
________________________________
From: brianlindgren -at- aol -dot- com [mailto:brianlindgren -at- aol -dot- com]
Sent: Monday, October 08, 2007 12:17 PM
To: lt34 -at- csus -dot- edu; dossy -at- panoptic -dot- com; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Spaces after full stop
Actually, typesetting had the rule of a single space after a period.
It was typewriting that had two spaces -- again, because of the monotype
issue (Courier font in the case of a typewriter).
Not sure about the rule for old hot type typesetting, but for all
electronic typesetting, the rule was to use a single space after
punctuation.
Even if this is the rule, though, there are times -- as with any
convention -- that one needs to be flexible. For example, the rule to spell
out numbers from nine down but to use digits for 10 and above. If a number
starts a sentence I will generally spell it out regardless of whether it
exceeds 10, and for technical measurements digits are used regardless of
whether the number is nine or less.
Often I add hyphens to words to avoid confusion regardless of
whether the hyphen is necessary. I might need to tell someone that I
"re-sent" a message so they won't think I "resent" it.
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