One space or two?
January 17, 2011
It’s time to go public with this, thanks to a recent piece on Slate.com by Farhad Manjoo on why you should never, I repeat, never put two spaces between a period and the beginning of the next sentence. I was taught to do the two-space thing in high-school typing class in the early 1980′s. I learned sometime in the last decade that two spaces were unnecessary because of the way that word processors and printers devote space to small or thin lettering. What Manjoo’s article taught me is that the two-space rule was an aberration in the history of typography. It was the advent of the manual typewriters and its letter-spacing limitations that brought the two-space rule into the picture. Prior to that, standard typography was one-space. I should have known that with all the old books and reprints of old books on my library shelves.
Lamentations and Haiti
January 21, 2010
Friday, January 29, First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Mississippi, will host the annual Mid-South Men’s Rally. This year’s speaker will be Dr. Michael A. Milton, president of Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina. Dr. Milton has posted an essay in which he applies the form and theology of the Old Testament book of Lamentations to the devastation of Haiti. Take the the time to read it.
Here’s an excerpt:
The earthquake that hit Haiti last about 30 seconds. And in that time hundreds of thousands of souls left this planet. But even as I write, even more, all over the world, will suddenly pass from this world into the presence of the Creator. Are we ready to go? For the brevity of life is ever before us, beckoning, calling, crying that we turn to the Lord while there is time. Jesus also calls for us to repent, to examine ourselves and to turn to Him. For God will punish unrepentant sin.
Again, it is not a time to point fingers in judgment at people Haiti. It is not time to think we can explain it all. That is not only unbiblical but inhumane and just plain dumb. But it is a time to pray for them, and to weep for them, but also to realize again the brevity of life and that I will soon stand before God myself. It is a time to recall that every horror here reminds us of the horror of being separated forever from God. It is a time for me to turn again to God and repent.
Which or that?
November 4, 2009
Do you ever have trouble knowing when to use “which” or “that” in your writing? Tips that help you write more clearly are available from the Grammar Girl. Good grammar advice, which is not easy to find, is available in podcast or transcript form.
