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   ENGLISH_TUTOR      English Tutoring for Students of the Eng      4,347 messages   

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   Message 3,754 of 4,347   
   Ardith Hinton to Alexander Koryagin   
   To find a subject... 1.   
   10 Sep 21 23:12:40   
   
   MSGID: 1:153/716.0 13c171c4   
   REPLY: 2:221/6.0 610fc3b2   
   CHRS: IBMPC 2   
   Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:   
      
    AH>  If you &/or your quoter prefer not to use the double space,    
    AH>  I accept that when the results are consistent...   
      
    AK>  It is the specifics of my quoter.    
      
      
             But you generally follow the same pattern in your own writing.  :-))   
      
      
      
    AK>  My quoter can format the text to a formatted form with an    
    AK>  aligned right margin, and in this case additional spaces    
    AK>  are OK. Vice versa it removes additional spaces and line    
    AK>  returns when I want long line paragraphs.   
      
      
             I'd noticed both you & Anton using such options.  I am told QEdit...   
   which my message editor invokes... was originally designed for programmers.     
      
             In the light of what Wiki has to say about the history of spacing in   
   English, however, I now realize the tendency to employ single spacing within &   
   between sentences originated with the advent of mass-market publications.  :-)   
      
      
      
    AK>  I remember you like to write your messages in the formatted    
    AK>  form with the aligned right margin.    
      
      
             I align the right margin for various reasons, one of which is that I   
   don't want the computer to muck around with my spacing.  I've learned over the   
   years that when I fill every line my software won't try to improve on it.  But   
   of course I have no control over what other people's software will do....  :-Q   
      
      
      
    AK>  It means the text alignment is turned on in your editor.    
      
      
             No, it means I'm an old schoolteacher for whom readability is of far   
   more importance than what's au courant or what others might do to save a buck.   
   When I look at material intended for beginning readers I notice the spacing is   
   consistent but the right margin is variable.  In such cases the paragraphs are   
   usually very short.  At some point I gather more fluent readers may prefer the   
   right margins to be consistent, even at the expense of consistency in spacing.   
      
             In this echo we have readers who are operating at various levels WRT   
   the English language, so what I'm doing is a bit of a balancing act... [grin].   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
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