A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry


I would like to comment on the use one space after a period at the end of a sentence. - sm


Posted: Sep 09, 2010

Over and over on these boards I read angry and disgruntled posts from MTs about how they feel it is only due to greed on the part of their MTSO, or due to some conspiracy carefully crafted by AHDI, that requires one space after a period at the end of a sentence. 

One period after the end of a sentence is not strictly an MT standard.   Everywhere in media, print journalism, and academia one space between sentences has become the norm.

This, for just one example, is copied/pasted directly from Grammar Girl's website.  The specific URL is below.  (Sorry for the bolding, it pasted that way and the html controls will not let me unbold it!)

Two Spaces After a Period--The Old Way

Here's the deal: Most typewriter fonts are what are called monospaced fonts. That means every character takes up the same amount of space. An "i" takes up as much space as an "m," for example. When using a monospaced font, where everything is the same width, it makes sense to type two spaces after a period at the end of a sentence to create a visual break. For that reason, people who learned to type on a typewriter were taught to put two spaces after a period at the end of a sentence. 

One Space After a Period--The New Way

But when you're typing on a computer, most fonts are proportional fonts, which means that characters are different widths. An "i" is more narrow than an "m," for example, and putting extra space between sentences doesn't do anything to improve readability.

Notice how in this example, the "i's" and "t" take up much less space in the proportional font than they do in the monospaced font.

Although how many spaces you use is ultimately a style choice, using one space is by far the most widely accepted and logical style. The Chicago Manual of Style (1), the AP Stylebook (2), and the Modern Language Association (3) all recommend using one space after a period at the end of a sentence.

2 spaces vs 1 space - RLee

[ In Reply To ..]
What happened to the post and thread about this subject the beginning of the week???

SM, for you, one big gold star for a good informative post. - Pragmatist

[ In Reply To ..]
RLee, for some reason space discussions have been moved to the Word Board. Don't know why, but I suspect it's just part of the usual conspiracy by MTSOs to cheat us all.

Thank you - for

[ In Reply To ..]
an out and out belly laugh!!
I agree! - happyMT
[ In Reply To ..]
Bwaaaahaaa hahahaha! Started off my morning with a huge laugh.

You are giving - RLee

[ In Reply To ..]
the one big gold star to the wrong person. Hmmm - I suspect you are one of many on this board who follows my posts and will make inaccurate insinuations at anything I post about or ASK aboout. I simply asked where the post went, as I thought for some STRANGE reason it may have been deleted by the moderator. Unfortunately, no stars for you today, as you are way out there!!!!!!!
No need to be so defensive RLee. She was just telling you to where the thread had been moved. - no message
[ In Reply To ..]
nm

This needs a sticky note so when newbies start griping bout - 1 or 2 spaces, it is there for them to read. nm,

[ In Reply To ..]
x

Again, the monospaced versus proportional fonts argument - LoriMT

[ In Reply To ..]
is not a valid argument when you consider that reports typed in Word that are then uploaded to a patient's EMR on a hospital-wide system are usually converted to a monospaced font, courier. I know for a fact this happens when reports are uploaded to a Cerner System such as Power Chart and I know it happens when uploading to Meditech.

SO explain to me how, under that theory, two spaces after a period would not be easier to read and thereby preferred?

It is totally irrelevant what standard other professions choose, in medical transcription there is a better argument for two spaces after period than there is for one space. The absolute ONLY reason it has become "widely accepted" in medical transcription to use one space after a period is because the AHDI said so and the MTSOs like the idea because it saves them money.

We, MTs, continue to suffer many indignities in our profession such as low pay, no raises, losing work to India, cheating us out of spaces between words, and now after periods. It's so completely obvious that we are losing this battle. We need to either step up collectively as a group of professionals and demand the respect and the pay we deserve or leave it for the Indians and move on to something else.

If you cannot see that, you are deluded or blind. And to tell MTs who have been in this business for a very long time and who were MTs when it was a good profession and have witnessed first hand its decline, that they are paranoid or crazy, is completely ignorant.

Wake up!

Times are a'changing. - Not biting

[ In Reply To ..]
You say it is "totally irrelevant what standard other professions choose" - Not true. We are part of a larger world.



FWIW (if anything), our reports are not in courier. A MUCH bigger - Anon

[ In Reply To ..]
readability issue is breaking text into paragraphs versus those massive blocks of text we so often create. Nobody here would want harried and hurried clinicians trying to find their own medical information buried somewhere in those, but--shocking to me--many MTs and editors seem to have no problem hiding information that way in the charts of many thousands of other patients.

Wonder how many deaths per year stem from that in our country alone?

IMO, to be a good MT, one must produce reports with readable, content-appropriate paragraphs. Compared to that, fussing over double spacing mainly because we don't like change, or just want something else to complain about, is profoundly silly.

And yes, I DID like double better, but that's what's irrelevant, not what the rest of the published world is doing.

It is totally irrelevant when you consider what I - LoriMT

[ In Reply To ..]
said in my post, i.e. that most reports are uploaded to a CIS or HIS system and usually converted to courier font. Under the whole font theory, it would stand to reason that two spaces after a period would be perferred since the reports converted to a monospaced font, no?

In the end, the goal should be an easily understood, grammatically correct, professional report. It is reasonable to deduce that two spaces following a period would be clearer than one. The whole debate on this subject is incredibly silly. The only reason it is an "issue" at all is because the AHDI has made it one. No one in the healthcare industry (doctors, nurses, transcriptionists, administrators, etc.) cared in the slightest whether there was one or two spaces after a period until AHDI brought it up and made it an issue.

Like I said on the other thread, this whole period debate should be called a subjective rule, meaning it's however the individual wants to do. But, **GASP** that would mean they would have to let us MTs actually think and make decisions on our own. God knows we MTs need to have every minute detail of our jobs spelled out for us in account specs and the BOS.

I mean we are all just housewives in our PJs, typing with babies on our laps, right? None of us went to college or have degrees, right? We shouldn't be allowed to edit a dictator to make him sound intelligent or make a decision regarding spaces after a period.

And OMG, you know that that extra space after the period totally changes the entire report. The hospital might get sued because we put two spaces after all periods. WHAT WERE WE THINKING?!?!!?

Spacing - none
[ In Reply To ..]
I think these days docs having to do dictation is just a necessary evil to them. I have always double-spaced. I am really more afraid of our reports all going to VR, some not checked at all by anyone, just headed up to the patient floor with the way the doctor said it. This especially happens in radiology. Yuk.
Said so well. This is our exact position. NM - dllll
[ In Reply To ..]
Said so well. This is our exact position.

LoriMT - Crystal

[ In Reply To ..]
Lori-you are so right. AHDI=MTSO's--their talking head division--absolutely no difference between the two, which is why they advocate things like this. They try to get our money one way or the other as that's what it is all about, money, not quality or safety. M Modal at Webmedx will automatically remove the double space if you put it in, as so many of us are accustomed to doing as we were properly taught. This does make for a hard to read, crammed together, unprofessional-looking document. I feel like adding a disclaimer that identifies the chart was originally done by ISR per AHDI and company specs, and how it would look much better if it was done by MTs still allowed to do their jobs.

Another way to cut MT pay and earning the ire of dictators is how they push using, (largely per the often revised so you have to keeping buying a new one, BOS), arabic numbers every where; for instance, cranial nerves 2 to 12. Had one doctor state rather nastily that it was roman numerals, by the way. She was quite emphatic and obviously perturbed that she had received reports like that and she was not alone. And, of course, M Modal will put in things like any 1 for anyone. Any time they mention a number, you get the arabic, which makes for a chart that looks as though a kindergarten student did it--you can use your discretion to deviate from this--many times it is left as is in a push for quantity, not quality.


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