How many spaces are there after a colon

There are three consecutive examples of this just above, in the second, third and fourth paragraphs of this section. The colon has a few minor uses. First, when you cite the name of a book which has both a title and a subtitle, you should separate the two with a colon: I recommend Chinnery's book Oak Furniture: the British Tradition.

You should do this even though no colon may appear on the cover or the title page of the book itself. Observe that, exceptionally, the colon is not followed by a white space in Biblical references.

Third, the colon may be used in writing ratios: Among students of French, women outnumber men by more than And eventually, when your word processor regularly tells you that the search item was not found, celebrate!

About two spaces after a period. I declare it once and for all aesthetically more appealing to have two spaces after a period.

If you refuse to alter your bullheadedness, I will petition the commandant to allow me to take one Marine detail to conquer your organization and impose my rule.

Thou shalt place two spaces after a period. Semper Fidelis. Status quo. How many spaces do you leave after a colon in a manuscript? One space after a colon. There is a traditional American typing practice, favored by some, of leaving two spaces after colons and periods.

This practice is discouraged by the University of Chicago Press, especially for formally published works and the manuscripts from which they are published. Please help. I have confusion regarding the correct spacing after periods and other closing punctuation.

My company uses the font Arial and consistently uses a flush-left margin. We are an engineering company. My job consists in preparing documents and letters for customers. Everything I read in manuals and from technical writers directs me to use one space after periods. Unless you are typing on an actual typewriter, you no longer have to put two spaces after a period. Or a question mark. Or an exclamation point.

The rule applies to all end punctuation. Nearly all style guides agree that one space is correct. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association APA was the only style guide that overtly recommended two spaces after a period, and even that long-time holdout for two spaces changed its guideline to one space in its update. If the following phrase is a complete independent clause, you may choose to capitalize it or not.

Believe me. Despite what your teachers taught and typewriters required in decades past, the number of spaces after end punctuation—and after a colon—is one. Wanting to be certain I was not conveying bad advice, I just checked five current style guides on my bookshelf:.

All five dictate the use of just one space. We spaced twice because of the uniform size of the type on our typewriters. But with computers and word processing software, we have had proportional type with m and w rendered bigger than i and f for decades. Why choose to be old-fashioned in business writing? Some life changes are difficult, but breaking the two-space habit is simple. Get your computer to help you. Also, set your grammar and spelling checker to correct you when you fall back into old ways.

Do you need an inspiring reason to make the change?