Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Two Spaces After Period Are Better Than One, Except Maybe They Aren't, Study Finds

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.

MrPlow writes:

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/

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Two Spaces After Period Are Better Than One, Except Maybe They Aren't, Study Finds | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 81 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday May 12 2018, @12:03PM

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Saturday May 12 2018, @12:03PM (#678793) Journal

    And I strongly prefer oxford commas because for me, they help resolve potential ambiguity, […]

    They can as well introduce ambiguity.

    Example: My brother, a farmer, and I were walking along the street.

    How many people are walking? Is it two people (the first one being my brother, a farmer, and the second one being me)? Or is it three people (The first one being my brother, the second one being a farmer, and the third one being me)?

    Now without Oxford comma: My brother, a farmer and I were walking along the street.

    Here it's clear that it is three people walking, since if I wanted to say that my brother is a farmer, then another comma after "farmer" would have been mandatory.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   2