One Space/Two Spaces After Period?

[Betty Kelly]

Well, all my life I have been inserting two spaces after a period. I learned to type this way back in the old days. I've just come to learn that one space after a period is the standard today, mainly because of proportional fonts in computer-generated documents. Look at any magazine article or web page. I guess I never even noticed the change to one space after a period.

My question is: Has the standard changed in legal transcripts also? Does anyone know what's right, or does every court/agency have their own standard these days?

Thanks,
Betty

[Michelle]

I still use two spaces after a period too :)

[Brenda Rogers]

Court reporters still use two spaces. One space is for desktop publishing, newspapers, etc. It depends on the type of font you're using. Courier New requires two spaces.

Chicago Manual of Style doesn't address legal transcripts; it's addressing newspapers and books more. If you look at books, they've had only one space for . . .ever. But they use a font that is proportional -- the L takes up less space on the page than the M. In our transcripts, they all take the same amount of space. That's the difference.

Stick with two spaces in transcripts. One is inappropriate.

(I only skimmed most of these messages, so I apologize if I'm repeating.)

[Lee]

The Gregg Reference Manual also says that one space after the period is now the common practice. They are now teaching this in college. My friend's daughter was marked off for putting two spaces.

[Betty Kelly]

Wow ...

[Jennie Ann]

My daughter experienced the same thing at her college in Virginia.

There are some transcription companies that I heard about who utilize the one-space-after-period rule. One of the traits that makes a good transcriptionist is being able to adapt their style to different companies' preferences. That is what separates the lions from the lambs in the client-provided transcription world.

Me personally, my transcripts will always have two spaces -- ALWAYS. I'd rather fight than switch. LOL! :>)

[Lee]

I have recently implemented the one-space rule for the police reports we do at our company. Most of the software programs they use are changing it automatically anyway. It will be a challenge for the veteran people. Some of the younger people were finding it hard to put two spaces and were always getting criticized. I can't bring myself to implement this on our verbatim transcripts though. Keeping two spaces there. That's the happy medium we've reached!

[Jennifer Lynn Campbell]

Betty,
I am a new CSR in Texas. I finished school about a year ago, so I guess I am pretty up-to-date on these things. I'm in Texas, and the school that I went to is still teaching two spaces after a period. I guess I'm not an authority, but for what it's worth, I still put two spaces after a period. Hope this helps.

[Jennie Ann]

That is good to know, Jennifer.

It is amazing to me how many styles exist. Some folks put the quotation mark before the period, and others don't.

Some folks put a space before and after the double hyphen (en/em dash), and others have no space.

I guess the golden rule is to always be consistent. :>)

[Brenda Rogers]

The quotation mark before the period is a British way of doing things. Look in any American style book and you'll see it goes after the period. But as you say, people have different ways of doing things, and if one is going to do it "wrong," at least it should be that way all the way through! :)