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How to Use White Space to Improve Readability

Edited byTeresa and 2 others

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Use White Space to Improve Readability

Back in 'the day' when typewriters were common, the rule of thumb was to put in two spaces after periods and other 'sentence enders', but one space after other punctuation.[1][2] This was because typewriter letters are monospaced. With computers, this has changed. Now you can put a single space after all punctuation.

Edit Steps

  1. 1
    Understand the importance of the space in a sentence. One or two spaces is infinitely better than no spaces. In today's 'text obsessed' world, using spaces after punctuation seems to have completely disappeared.
  2. 2
    Compare two sentences; one with spaces, and one without. See that it is nearly impossible to read the sentence without spaces at times.
    • When people use punctuation, they should use spaces because it is hard to read otherwise. Human beings need the white space.
  3. 3
    Know that if you are writing professionally, that writing without spaces is one huge turnoff. If you submit articles somewhere, you can create a lot of work because someone has to clean up after you and insert those spaces.

Edit Tips

  • Always use a space after punctuation...always. There are no exceptions to that particular rule.


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Edit Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://spider.georgetowncollege.edu/T3/wsr/csc120/wp1spa97.htm
  2. ↑ http://www.mla.org/style_faq3

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Last edited:
April 16, 2011 by Bbyrd009

Categories:
Better Writing

Recent edits by: Jehad Zuqibeh, Teresa (see all)

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