On Fri, 27 Mar 2015 19:24:06 -0700, Karl L Wuensch wrote:
As usual, Mike has provided superb links. I opine that the
effect of spacing on readability is likely affected by personal
characteristics. In typing class in junior high I learned that a
single space between sentences would earn a reprimand.
At my current age, and with lost neurons producing visual field
deficits in my left eye, I find it difficult to read text with just one
space between sentences, especially with proportional fonts.
This puts me in the uncomfortable position of agreeing with
the APA.
Karl, I know how you fell. I hate agreeing with the APA too. ;-)
Just a few additional points:
(1) The discussion so far implicitly assumes that we are only
talking about manuscripts produced by some form of word
processor. Perhaps some Tipsters are too young to remember
that some publishers required authors to provide "camera
ready" text which was then used in the final published product
(often this was from a typewriter).
.
One example comes from this APA-ish style reference:
Launer, R. L., & Wilkinson, G. N. (Eds.). (1978). Robustness
in statistics. New York: Academic Press.
See:
https://books.google.com/books?id=dabiBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA202&dq=%22Robustness+in+Statistics%22++Launer+Wilkinson+%22all+models+are+wrong%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=-KEWVdDsGoe_ggT_uoSgCg&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Robustness%20in%20Statistics%22%20%20Launer%20Wilkinson%20%22all%20models%20are%20wrong%22&f=false
The link above should lead to page of George Box's chapter where
he famously said "All models are wrong but some are useful". What
appears to be the original manuscript for this chapter can be obtained
here:
http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA070213
Today, with electronic submission of manuscripts, the published
article or book chapter can follow whatever conventions the
printer and/or the publisher desires.
(2) Using word processing software, however, is not without its
problems because it depends upon on how "smart" the software
is or, in other words, what capabilities it has to alter the appearance
of text. One thing that has been involved in this discussion is the
concept of "kerning," the process of spacing of letters within words
and between words. For more on this topic, see the Wikipedia
entry on kerning:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerning
Spacing within words and between words affects eye movement and
cognitive processing as shown in work of Slattery & Rayner; the ref
is:
Slattery, T. J., & Rayner, K. (2013). Effects of intraword and interword
spacing on eye movements during reading: Exploring the optimal use
of space in a line of text. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics,
75(6), 1275-1292.
The article is accessible at the link below and on Researchgate:
http://link.springer.com/article/10.3758%2Fs13414-013-0463-8
Getting the "spacing" right is a problem for proportional fonts and
different types of fonts (and how they are implemented) can make
text easier or harder.
(3) I think that one reason why APA style uses "ragged right" instead
of left and right adjusted is because the former helps with spacing
especially with proportional fonts. With both sides adjusted, the
spacing between words is usually increased (leading to distracting
white space) and sometimes the spacing between letters within
words (which makes the words look strange). Since proportional
fonts assign unequal space for letters (less for "i", more for "m"),
left and right adjusted text looks stranger than for monospaced
text. One can see this problem in old newspapers where the
"column" had to be maintained even though odd spacing occurred.
(4) Karl, sorry to hear about your vision problem and I hope that
reading manuscripts on a large monitor compensates. Reading
actual paper papers must be a drag.
-Mike Palij
New York University
[email protected]
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