I've always used two, but it has recently been brought to my attention that there's only supposed to be one. Someone should bring that to the attention of my grade school English teacher, then.
I was taught one after commas, two after periods.
Now I'm confused. Regardless, I like two. I think it makes sentences more readable.
Apparently the two-space rule was a typing convention.
Probably like yourself, when I migrated from typing to the computer, I brought my ever so clever fingers with me. Those poor bastards had a dickens of a time relearning the new single-space convention.
Rebel that I am, I often still double-space after periods just because I feel like flaunting convention.
The "rules" of writing are somewhat arbitrary, anyway.
We have various
"manuals of style". The
Chicago Manual of Style is a good example. But the only real rule of writing is to do so in a way that conveys meaning to your audience.
One day, I plan to write my own idosyncratic manuel of style specifically for the internet.
Giving that we have the luxury of writing in an html environment, where we can hyperlink, publishing conventions of the past need rethinking.
Let me propose the following:
Using emoticons should be pushishable by death.
I know we all like them, but they are cute exactly once.
If you must augment your thoughts with images, sail out into the great sea of information and fish one --
preferable a great one -- out.
Bon voyage
