Shots fired: The most recent edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association states that two spaces should follow the punctuation at the end of a sentence.
“Although comprehension was not affected by punctuation spacing,” reads the abstract, “the eye movement record suggested that initial processing of the text was facilitated when periods were followed by two spaces….”
So. Science for the win, right?
Not so fast.
“[A] closer look at the research suggests that the only reasonable interpretation is that double spacing after a period remains bad,” says Angela Chen. “It’s ugly, it doesn’t help when it comes to what matters most (reading comprehension), and the experiment that supports its benefits uses an outdated font style.”
Of course, none of this matters unless you believe—as all civilized people do—that the act of reading is much, much more than just information delivery.
