There has been great debate about whether on not you should add one or two spaces after a period in a sentence before starting the next. According to MLA (http://www.mla.org/style_faq3 ) the answer is that it doesn't matter. On a typewriter, all characters are monospaced, and so the second space makes reading easier. In a word processing program, the fonts we use are proportionally spaced so the extra white space is no longer required to make reading easier.

So what to do? Up to you really…but here is a handy trick to make Word 2007 help you remember to stay consistent. First, click the Office button and choose Word Options from the menu. That will bring up the following dialog.

Next, click the Settings button next to Writing Style. This brings up the following dialog which allows you to require checks for spacing as you type and when you initiate a grammar check.

The bottom line is consistency. If you are use double spaces after a period…ALWAYS use double spaces. If you only use single spaces, ALWAYS use single spaces. And if you for some reason decide to use a monospaced font, ALWAYS use double spaces.