[bccdee]

Actually it's a dead convention among all reputable typographers and style guides. Check Chicago Manual of Style. Check MLA. Check APA. Nobody whose business it is to establish the correct number of spaces to put between sentences believes that number to be two.

[dctoedt]

> Nobody whose business it is to establish the correct number of spaces to put between sentences

What's the metric for establishing what is the "correct" number of spaces? I submit that it's functional, not aesthetic: the speed at which users — i.e., readers — grasp the information being presented. Whether typographers regard a single space as prettier is less important.

[philderbeast]

If the speed users grasp the information presented is most important, is there any objective measurement that 1 vs 2 spaces actually makes a difference.

I would suggest rather then some arcane spacing convention, the simplicity and clarity of the wording is objectively far more important then any style guide. I would also suggest that this is something the legal profession is generally very bad at with the amount of legal jargon found in most documents produced in the profession.

[dctoedt]

> is there any objective measurement that 1 vs 2 spaces actually makes a difference.

One (small) study said that two spaces increases reading speed by about 3% [0] [1] [2]; I couldn't find any indication whether scanning and skimming speeds were studied.

From an article: "When the double-space was present, their eyes fixated less on the break between sentences and they moved to the next one more quickly. Ultimately, it seemed it was a bit easier for their brains to make sense of when sentences were more clearly broken up." [3]

> the simplicity and clarity of the wording is objectively far more important [than] any style guide. ... this is something the legal profession is generally very bad at with the amount of legal jargon found in most documents produced in the profession.

Agreed! I teach advanced contract drafting to third-year law students; I stress two principal rules: (A) Short, Single-Subject Paragraphs — don't be a L.O.A.D. [Lazy Or Arrogant Drafter] [4], and (B) BLUF - Bottom Line Up Front [5]. Following those two rules will produce the biggest bang for the buck in terms of improved readability.

[0] https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.3758/s13414-018-1527-6?sha...

[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/05/two-spac...

[2] https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-05-space-period-sentence...

[3] https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/scientists-two-spaces-...

[4] https://toedtclassnotes.site44.com/Notes-on-Contract-Draftin...

[5] https://toedtclassnotes.site44.com/Notes-on-Contract-Draftin...

[philderbeast]

the study provides an interesting read, thanks for the link.

It is interesting when you look at the reading results, in particular the only significant difference in reading speed was for people that typed using 2 spaces at the end of a sentence, when they also were reading a document formatted that way. (I note that the other 3 articles cite back to the same source study)

This would appear to show that considering most people outside the legal profession do not follow that convention, that there is no real benefit, particularly when even this improvement was not considered statistically significant in the study.

I did a quick skim of the course notes, and I can defiantly agree with the principals your teaching. I hope your students appreciate just how important those points are in all there written communication.

[Dracophoenix]

The unofficial standard style guide for the American legal profession is the Bluebook.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebook

[jamesliudotcc]

The Bluebook specifically says to defer to the Chicago Manual of Style where the Bluebook does not prescribe a rule.

Chicago requires 1 space.

Also, the Bluebook is at most followed only in spirit, more commonly in the breach. Most of it is specifically for "scholarly" articles, not practitioners' documents. Smallcaps is an important part of following Bluebook for scholarship! There is a slim section on how to translate requirements to briefs, but it is underspecified so lawyers just kind of muddle along. All while insisting they follow it to the letter. They don't.

[Dracophoenix]

Well then, I guess I'm eating crow. Thank you for the summary.

[dctoedt]

I just searched the online Bluebook and found nothing about spaces after the end of a sentence.

[Dracophoenix]

Personally, I'm not familiar with any double-space rule. I simply mentioned the Bluebook in response to the above poster's misleading argument that a legal convention is "dead" on the basis of style guides that aren't generally relevant to lawyers.