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posted by Fnord666 on Friday May 11 2018, @12:26PM   Printer-friendly
from the BBC-thinks-it's-a-paragraph-break-after-a-period dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

In what may be one of the most controversial studies of the year, researchers at Skidmore College—clearly triggered by a change in the American Psychological Association (APA) style book—sought to quantify the benefits of two spaces after a period at the end of a sentence. After conducting an eye-tracking experiment with 60 Skidmore students, Rebecca L. Johnson, Becky Bui, and Lindsay L. Schmitt found that two spaces at the end of a period slightly improved the processing of text during reading. The research was trumpeted by some press outlets as a vindication of two-spacers' superiority.

Source: https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/05/two-spaces-after-period-are-better-than-one-except-maybe-they-arent-study-finds/


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  • (Score: 5, Funny) by AssCork on Friday May 11 2018, @12:40PM (2 children)

    by AssCork (6255) on Friday May 11 2018, @12:40PM (#678332) Journal

    Many moons ago I worked at a (US) Federally Funded Research and Development Center, which housed a number of scientists and their 'administrative assistance'. Those poor bastards were basically technical writers, who had to reformat everything handed-in by the eggheads before it was sent in. There was a long, long, long list of formatting requirements they were contractually bound to follow.

    And the very last section basically said "follow standard punctuating practices as outlined by ".
     
     
    So there was this organization, that basically flip-flopped on crap like this (and oxford comma usage, and semi-colon usage, and acceptable margins, and so forth).
    Every time I hear about this, I freak out a little bit - mainly from years of watching elderly divorcees flip out and throw chairs (literal chairs, hurled by a 60 year old woman, who was on her seventh marriage)

    --
    Just popped-out of a tight spot. Came out mostly clean, too.
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  • (Score: 2) by requerdanos on Friday May 11 2018, @03:27PM

    by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 11 2018, @03:27PM (#678417) Journal

    'administrative assistance'

    So,

    assistance noun. the act of assisting; help; aid; support. [dictionary.com]

    Is this a euphemism for coffee? Mountain Dew? Diet Coke? Crutches?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 11 2018, @05:54PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 11 2018, @05:54PM (#678512)

    I remember complaining to grade school teachers about flip flopping grammar rules. Then you get into high school and college and the ever changing footnote formatting. Not as bad now, but before word processors when you had to perform magic on the typewriter to get it to make special characters at 1.5 lines above and below normal type. uhgf