Archives for April 2015

The double space and the title case

April 10, 2015 by Jen

Typewriter

The first time I ever had to follow a style guide (of sorts) I was working as a word processor operator at an engineering firm. My manager reiterated that there should be certain punctuation in addresses, two spaces after full-stops, and title case (ie initial capital letters) for headings. This was during the time of the typewriter being phased out and the the computer being phased in. I was using Wordstar to create documents and I wondered what this Windows software was that would enable me to copy and paste things between programs. I didn’t yet have a mouse to navigate around menus, but had to use the keyboard. The World-Wide-Web was a twinkle in Tim Berners-Lee’s eyes.

However, I digress slightly. I carried on with the two spaces after full-stops and initial caps for all words in headings for some time.

After travelling overseas for a couple of years I found temporary work doing desktop publishing where I worked with editors who had a style manual to refer to for such things. After some solid work, my habit of two spaces after full-stops and my use of initial caps was gone and I was converted to using one space after a full-stop and minimal capitalisation and I’ve been a disciple of this ever since.

I regularly, and I mean very regularly, have to correct space and capital usage in work I’m editing and I’m not usually questioned on it, but sometimes I am.

I once had a bunch of fact sheets to make accessible for the web so as part of my work I merrily did a search and replace to remove the double spaces after the full-stops. I sent the fact sheets back to the author and she questioned me on it. I explained why I did it but she was adamant that they stay in. I explained that it just wasn’t done any more because computers mostly use proportionally spaced fonts, unlike typewriters which used the same space for every letter, ie mono-spaced. Here’s more of an explanation.

We ended up meeting about this as I felt it was easier to explain in person. After this meeting I requested it be added to the internal style guide so I didn’t have to go through this again.

Having a company style guide is invaluable to show people who insist on title case capitalisation. I probably refer people to it every couple of weeks when I’m questioned.

What about you? Are you guilty of adding two spaces after full-stops?

Joy in the simple things

April 4, 2015 by Jen

The lad and I were driving to go and help with the food shopping for his camping weekend away the other night when we saw and heard all these birds frolicking up on the wire. He got me to stop the car and got out to take some photos (so photo credit to my son on this one). I’m glad I took the time to stop. It was a back street making it easier to pull over and stop. We’d actually left the house a bit earlier instead of the last minute rush as is often the case.

It was raining and the birds were relishing the rain. It’s been a dry summer, therefore we’ve not had too many rainfalls recently.

They were making a heck of a noise and there were even birds hanging off other birds. It was great to see, and to hear. Do they normally hang out together like this around sunset, or did they come together because of the rain?

Too often the rain keeps us indoors but I quite like a walk in the rain. The dog doesn’t mind it either. He doesn’t like a gentle sprinkle with the hose and he definitely doesn’t like being washed, but add a lead and walk into the equation, getting wet doesn’t matter. The rub-down when we get home is worth it too.

One day at a time

April 3, 2015 by Jen

I love autumn. I love the obvious changing of seasons. I love how the tree leaves change colour and how the weather is noticeably cooling down even though the warmer weather sometimes makes an appearance.

The days are getting shorter and my walking the dog in the mornings is mostly done while dark, the sun just thinking about appearing as I’m getting home. It’s still not cool enough to wear a jacket outside yet, but I know that’s on its way and I look forward to cranking up the slow combustion wood heater.

I hope this season brings along change for me as well. I feel like I’ve been in a bit of a funk lately partly due to missing out on a job that I feel should have been mine but isn’t. Dealing with a moody teenage boy isn’t helping me cruise through day-to-day life either. I don’t know what’s worse, having a three-year old or a 13-year old. There are similarities. He would live on junk food if he could. He turns his nose up at 95% of my cooking. He has little tantrums. However, there are up-sides. I don’t have to be on hand as much to tend to his daily needs like I used to.

One minute he can be quite hateful and the next he makes me laugh and we have fun together. I drove him and two other Scouts to camp yesterday evening. I’d had a shitful time with him prior to going to the hall to pack up the last bits and pieces and was dreading the drive but it turned out to be fun. The boys were all excited about going away and they chatted non-stop about school, about teachers, about friends. Despite the warning from my son not to embarrass him, or talk, I didn’t embarrass him but I was allowed to talk a bit. Although I nearly spilled the beans about what him and a female friend used to get up to when they were three. I stopped along the way and bought us all a flavoured milk drink – a road-trip necessity, especially as I had to drive home after dropping them off, and it won me some browny points.

When I said goodbye he gave me two extended hugs so I know that despite his teenage-ness, he still loves me.

So, I take one day at a time and I’m enjoying the peace and quiet this weekend.