A small note on spacing.

It's a fact of grammar and usage that teachers tend to teach rules that are outdated, if not just plain wrong, and that students remember them. It's another fact that anyone is capable of being inflexible with these rules, even in the face of contrary information.

For as long as I can remember caring about such things, I've been insistent that periods and commas are always followed by two spaces, and have had several arguments on the subject. However, The Chicago Manual of Style states, in section 2.12, "Line spacing and word spacing," that "A single character space, not two spaces, should be left after periods at the ends of sentences (both in manuscript and in final, published form) and after colons." I stand corrected.

Now at the end of every sentence I type, my keystrokes are PERIOD SPACE SPACE BACKSPACE. Some habits are hard to break.