GRAMMAR LESSON #24: Hard returnsPlease take a look at the following post:
I don't hope to gain anything.
I just think this entire thread is a little bit more interesting than reading about the cement on Night Lion's front porch.
Not much more interesting....A little bit more interesting.
Peace,
Ceeboo
With the old manual typewriters, it was customary to press the Tab key at the beginning of each new paragraph. This is still true of fiction books. With the advent of typing text into fields within web pages, there is no quick convention for indenting a new paragraph (due to the fact that the Tab key causes the cursor to leave the field and activate the next input device, like a button or hyperlink). Therefore, it's customary to put an extra, empty line between two paragraphs.
To make this happen, the "Enter" key must be pressed twice. The problem is, some people become confused and mistakenly think that a hard return must be placed at the end of every sentence (in other words, they mistakenly think the "Enter" key must be pressed once) when in reality
it must not be pressed at all. At the end of a paragraph,
two hard returns must be made (in other words, the "Enter" key must be pressed twice).
For some reason, the "two" gets lost in translation, and people mistakenly feel the need to add lots of extra white space by pressing the "Enter" key three or more times.
This must not be done.With those two points in mind, these are the mistakes in the above-quoted post:
I don't hope to gain anything.
I just think this entire thread is a little bit more interesting than reading about the cement on Night Lion's front porch. <---Mistaken single hard return
Not much more interesting....A little bit more interesting.
<---Mistaken triple hard return
Peace,<---We can forgive this single hard return since it's a closing salutation
Ceeboo
Now that we all know better, here is how it should've been formatted:
I don't hope to gain anything.
I just think this entire thread is a little bit more interesting than reading about the cement on Night Lion's front porch. Not much more interesting....A little bit more interesting.
Peace,
Ceeboo
See how much easier that is to read? How much better it "flows?"
In summary,
RULE OF THUMB (or of right little finger): You may press the "Enter" key twice, but only at the end of a WHOLE PARAGRAPH.
You may never press the enter key once, three times, four times, etc. If your right little finger ever hovers over the "Enter" key, it may only depress the key TWO times AND NO OTHER NUMBER OF TIMES (except within a closing salutation, in which case one time is forgivable, but it's much better to skip the closing salutation on the Internet since everyone can see your username and avatar anyway).
Now go thou and sin no more.
(To the person reading this who is about to post a reply that contains repeated violations of this rule: Just don't do it. Stop yourself. The joke is older than the hills. You are neither cute nor funny.)
"Finally, for your rather strange idea that miracles are somehow linked to the amount of gay sexual gratification that is taking place would require that primitive Christianity was launched by gay sex, would it not?"
--Louis Midgley
