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Subject:Re[2]: Does grammar matter? From:David Warren <David -dot- Warren -at- NEXTEL -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 21 May 1998 16:37:18 -0400
Howdy!
I also learned to type on the old manual typewriters, but did most of
my work on a *portable*...to this day I still wear out keyboards.
The convention of using a double space was to alert human typesetters
that the end of a sentence approached. With the advent of
computer-aided typesetting, that need disappeared. Typeset documents
*never* used a double-space at the end of a sentence, and neither
should desktop-published documents.
In the same manner as the "split-infinitive rule," part of being a
professional writer is *knowing* when to break the rule. Framemaker
enforces the "single space after each sentence rule" because it is
typographically correct, not because it is some picayune rule schemed
up to perplex the un-initiated.
Although our DTP'd output looks ever so much better than that of the
typewriter, it still does not compare to professionally typeset text.
Perhaps such differences *are* picayune for the ephemera we spew forth
as our livelihood, but to deny them is incorrect.
(Grumble-grumble-grumble)
Sincerely,
David T. Warren
Publications Manager, Nextel Communications
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Does grammar matter?
Author: Elna Tymes <etymes -at- lts -dot- com> at INTERNET
Date: 5/21/98 12:23 PM
(snip)...many of us who learned to type some 30 years or more ago
learned to put two spaces after a period. Like tying one's shoes, it's
a habit we simply learned. Framemaker has decreed that there shall be
only a single space after a period, and when you run the spellchecker
calls the extra space to your attention every time, unless you remember
to deliberately turn off the extra spaces. There is no general
agreement that one space is the only truly proper way to type, but some
people think so. In a sense, Framemaker is enforcing the single space
issue in the same way that some editors enforce the no-split-infinitives
rule.
Is good grammar important? Most of the time, but not when it interferes
with good communication.
