Spaces between punctuation

jmg77584 wrote:
Is there a way to check for the number of spaces between punctuation in Pages 09? Is there a way to set this so proofreading will catch if the wrong number of spaces are placed between punctuation?

Removing the extra spaces is relatively easy, assuming that there's no place where two adjacent space characters are correct.

Press command-F to open the Find/Replace dialogue.
Type two spaces in the Find box.
Press tab to move to the Change box.
Type one space in the Change Box.
Click Replace All repeatedly until the dialogue reports "0 Replaced"

Adding spaces in specific places is a bit more tricky.

First, there's the problem of places where the number of spaces is already correct.

Second, there's the question of whether every occurrence of a specific character requires either two following spaces or no following spaces. I'm thinking specifically of the period/decimal separator, but wondering if there are occasions where one of the characters usually used for punctuation may correctly be used under ADA v6 with a single following space.

The first issue can be solved by using the procedure above to ensure that every occurrence of, say ", " needs another space. The second, if it does arise, requires your own intervention.

After ensuring all extra spaces have been removed, clear the Find and Change boxes, then

Type a period followed by a space in Find.
Type a period followed by two spaces in Replace.
Press Replace All ONCE.

Replace the periods in both boxes with the next punctuation character requiring the correction.
Press Replace All once.

Etc.

In APA formatting there is one space between punctuation for the 5th edition and two spaces between punctuation for the 6th edition. I am making a template for both editions since each class/instructor requires papers to be written in a different APA edition.

As an aside, this seems a step backward on APA's part. Has there been any rationale given for the change?

Regards,
Barry

PS: This may be possible to handle with an AppleScript, which would reduce the hands on aspect significantly.
B

2 spaces is ridiculous!

Has APA also insisted you submit it painted in ochre on a sabretooth skin?

Peter

jmg77584 wrote:
I am not sure why APA requires two spaces and it can be a hassle when working in a group.

Hi James,

I am not sure thatAPA requires two spaces.

This is from the 'What's New in the Sixth Edition of the Publication Manual?' section of the APA Style website:

Punctuation—return to two spaces after the period at the end of the sentence recommended for ease of reading comprehension. ( Emphasis added)
http://www.apastyle.org/manual/whats-new.aspx

Note that the recommendation applies only to punctuation at the end of a sentence, which makes a mechanical means of applying the recommendation a bit of a nightmare.

The tutorial on Manuscript Format at the APA Style website doesn't mention this recommendation, and the first of the (corrected) sample papers included in the resources section of the site has only a single space following punctuation in the parts I looked at. Here's a brief sample. The rest can be found in the linked PDF document.

"Regions of the brain thought to be important for emotional detection remain relatively
intact with aging (reviewed by Chow& Cummings, 2000). Thus, it is plausible that the detection
of emotional information remains relatively stable as adults age. However, despite the
preservation of emotion-processing regions with age (or perhaps because of the contrast between
the preservation of these regions and age-related declines in cognitive-processing regions; Good
et al., 2001; Hedden & Gabrieli, 2004; Ohnishi, Matsuda, Tabira, Asada, & Uno, 2001; Raz,
2000; West, 1996), recent behavioral research has revealed changes that occur with aging in the
regulation and processing of emotion. According to..."
(Excerpt retrieved Dec 12, 2010 from http://supp.apa.org/style/PM6E-Corrected-Sample-Papers.pdf p.41 (2 of 19))

Although I didn't check the entire paper, the parts I did check, including the part above, were quite consistent in using a single space following periods, commas and semi-colons, including the periods at the end of sentences. The only exception in this section appears to be the period attached to "et al," which had no space following it.

I did note one typo—the lack of a space in "Chow& Cummings" in the first citation. Visually, there does appear to be a space in hits location of the pdf document. The PDF is also double spaced, a property that did nnot survive the transfer here.

Regards,
Barry

jmg77584 wrote:
Barry,
This makes life easier. I read the section on periods again in the 6th edition of the APA manual. I now see two spaces is not a requirement at the end of a sentence. My wife and I both interpreted this to mean two spaces all the time. I think we saw two spaces and did not fully comprehend the sentence. If possible you just made my APA experience easier when I have to use it in my next class.
Thank you for the response. James

Glad to hear that, James. The two spaces between sentences is a hangover from the days of manual typewriters. I don't think there was ever an APA requirement for extra spaces after punctuation in the middle of a sentence, and the suggestion got me curious enough to go take a look. I'm happy to hear it's going to make your student life a bit easier.

Regards,
Barry

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