I have had an epiphany.
In my job, I do a lot of writing and editing. Much of the editing involves stuff that co-workers send me for the company’s internal newsletter. These articles, blurbs, snibbets and belchings of words come from non-writerly folks and, as the writerly folk among you can imagine, there are many mistakes. Commas where there shouldn’t be or semicolons where semicolons have no business. Run on sentences. Descriptions of things that include the word “very” way too many times. But none of these bother me (well, maybe a little). The thing that makes me crazy is extra spaces.
AP style dictates that there only be one space between sentences. Most people don’t let AP style rule their lives like I do, so I can also forgive the two spaces in between sentences. It’s the three, four and *gasp!* sometimes FIVE spaces in between sentences that are like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. And then there’s the worst of all offenses: two or three spaces in between words! What kind of insanity drives a person to put more than one space in between two words?!
But I had the aforementioned epiphany just today and I think it has helped me gain a little perspective on this whole crisis. And here it is: they don’t care. They put extra spaces in between words or sentences and they actually don’t care. They don’t even notice those gaping, life-sucking voids on the page where there should be no void. Can you imagine?! This epiphany should help me get over it and move on. But I have a feeling it won’t.
And here’s how imagine this whole situation as my co-workers see it:
In other news, I got a blog award from the fabulous Kris Atkins. And here it is:
This is my very first blog award and now I know just how Sally Field felt in 1985 accepting that Emmy…
So now I am charged with passing it on to 15 other lovely blogs! Here you are (and someday when I get my act together and get that blogroll over on the side working, you all will totally be listed there…)
http://nanonewb.wordpress.com/
http://elisamichelle.wordpress.com/
http://katearmsroberts.wordpress.com/
http://flippingpagesforward.wordpress.com/
http://sarahleighann.wordpress.com/
http://barbrude.wordpress.com/
http://heathernull.wordpress.com/
http://avoidingkim.wordpress.com/
http://kanatyler.wordpress.com/
http://imnotthemessiahjustaverybusymum.wordpress.com/
http://getpublishedorcrytrying.wordpress.com/
http://penthepages.wordpress.com/
TGIF everyone! And the last few days’ countdown to Nanowrimo begins!
5 spaces? Who are these people?
I can see why you de-armed them, uneven margins… indeed!
I know, right?! It’s a miracle I haven’t gone completely insane.
I learned as a kid to put two spaces between sentences! Was there ever a style that dictated this? To be fair, I also had a third grade teacher that marked my spelling of “cannot” wrong on an assignment, and corrected it as “can not.”
I think that is how they teach kids to do it in school – two spaces between sentences. But when I started journalism classes, that was beaten out of me, so I don’t remember the pre-journalism rules too well. I suppose that became the rule because, in newspapers, space means money. So, I can’t hold it against the normal people who have never worked for a newspaper when they put two spaces in there. But, three, four or five? That’s just craziness.
I feel your pain. I also love it when non-writerly people decide to get jazzy with their vocabularies and use elevated diction completely out of context, making sentences totally nonsensical.
Recent clip from a colleague trying to sound smart, in response to a oh-I-see-you’re-just-being-a-smart-ass email quip: ” I was trying neither to be sardonic nor ebullient.”
Of course, my head exploded all over my cubicle.
That is hysterical! I hope you made your colleague clean the brain bits off your cubicle wall!
I’m amazed that this still happens in a world where most people use Microsoft Word. Misspellings are underlined in red and if you use too many spaces, you get a blue underline. I’m with mhsweeny above – I learned to use two spaces. Recently, I was talking to someone pursuing a doctorate, and she mentioned that she was getting penalized for using more than a single space between sentences. From that point, I tried to make a conscious effort to go back to one space. It’s still hard to do! (I had to backspace to get rid of the second space four times in this comment)
Btw, thanks for mentioning my blog! I’m hoping I can keep it up during NaNo and everything else.
Congratulations on your blog award and good luck with Nano. Hopefully, it will distract you from all of those frustrating spaces.
“Why don’t we have arms?” Haha!
That does blow my mind. Maybe their spacebars are sticky? Or they have spastic thumbs? I just can’t find any other reason for it.
Happy weekend!
One repeat offender (who I jokingly tease about all the spaces, while inside my head I silently curse him out) says, “huh, I must tap the space bar while I’m thinking of what I’m going to type next.” Hm, maybe. But it’s still just not normal!
Ugh! I feel your pain. I also do a lot of editing at work and we had one guy that refused to use commas. Seriously! I tried to explain to him how commas work and where he should put them. His reponse? “No, I don’t like commas, so I don’t use them.” What is wrong with people?
However, that being said, I’m also one of those people that use two spaces. But only two, I swear! I was taught that way in school and now when I have to use APA format for something (which I do a lot for school), I just type it like I normally do, then use find and replace to fix all of my spaces.
Thanks for the lovely blog award!
You’re welcome! We Browncoats have to stick together.
I get what you are saying albeit in a totally different medium. I am a photographer/professor of photography. Before this job I worked as a professional photographer in a museum. As part of that job I would occasionally do “post-production” work on images made by other people…kind of like your work editing I think. Nothing made me crazier than having to fix something that was easily avoidable when the image was made. You don’t want that exit sign in the image? Don’t have it in the frame when you push the button! Now that I am a teacher I give a whole lecture on “doing it right the first time so the post production person won’t threaten your life”.
Yes! I feel for you here, too. I do some photography and have to deal with submitted photographs in my job, too. It is crazy what people think will “look just fine.” Really? Do you not see that fire extinguisher that happens to be sprouting out from that person’s head?