Several students have been pointing out that they are required to follow the APA guidelines when posting to discussion forums, which will not allow them to have 2 spaces after a period as required by APA.
After testing, whether typing in HTML mode or rich text editor mode, Moodle (1.9.7 at least) seems to auto-truncate 2 spaces to 1 space.
Is there any fix for this?
thanks!
clark
In short, you should not use more than one space:
http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/CMS_FAQ/OneSpaceorTwo/OneSpaceorTwo_questions01.html
Longer version:
HTML itself will ignore more than one space, unless you force it not to.
Unfortunately, even if you add the HTML code for multiple spaces, Moodle will strip it. I believe that is a "feature" that has been built into Moodle for years now. It wreaks havoc on those of us trying to post computer code examples.
http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/CMS_FAQ/OneSpaceorTwo/OneSpaceorTwo_questions01.html
Longer version:
HTML itself will ignore more than one space, unless you force it not to.
Unfortunately, even if you add the HTML code for multiple spaces, Moodle will strip it. I believe that is a "feature" that has been built into Moodle for years now. It wreaks havoc on those of us trying to post computer code examples.
Who are APA?
APA stands for American Psychological Association, which (as I understand it and please correct me if I'm wrong) developed a style guide (including an author-date referencing system) for its publications.
That style guide has been more widely adopted by various publishers, mainly within the sciences, to give consistency in areas such as punctuation, referencing, etc.
<opinionated guff>While this is an admirable thing in many ways (I was a book editor for many years before teaching), it is a shame when it promulgates outdated practices such as double spaces after full-stops (or periods, depending which part of the world you hail from). This practice was originally used to make it easier to discern the breaks between sentences in texts using monospaced fonts, originally on a typewriter. We no longer set text using typewriters, and rarely in monospaced fonts (e.g. Courier), so the practice might just as well cease.</opinionated guff>
After a decade and a half of removing tens of thousands of double spaces after full-stops in manuscripts, I think I may have become a teeny bit sensitive on this issue ...
That style guide has been more widely adopted by various publishers, mainly within the sciences, to give consistency in areas such as punctuation, referencing, etc.
<opinionated guff>While this is an admirable thing in many ways (I was a book editor for many years before teaching), it is a shame when it promulgates outdated practices such as double spaces after full-stops (or periods, depending which part of the world you hail from). This practice was originally used to make it easier to discern the breaks between sentences in texts using monospaced fonts, originally on a typewriter. We no longer set text using typewriters, and rarely in monospaced fonts (e.g. Courier), so the practice might just as well cease.</opinionated guff>
After a decade and a half of removing tens of thousands of double spaces after full-stops in manuscripts, I think I may have become a teeny bit sensitive on this issue ...
Turns out, APA is heavily used by at least one of our fully online programs, and it was a controversial decision recently to revert to two spaces, but it turns out it's not such a big deal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-spaced_sentences#American_Psychological_Association
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-spaced_sentences#American_Psychological_Association
More info: http://supp.apa.org/style/PM6E-1st-Printing-Reprint-Corrections.pdf
Thanks!
clark