diff --git a/cui/cui.go b/cui/cui.go
index f02ba14..67d8b3a 100644
--- a/cui/cui.go
+++ b/cui/cui.go
@@ -81,20 +81,22 @@ func Clear(dir string) {
 
 }
 
-func wrapLines(s []string, length int) []string {
+// takes the document content (as a slice) and modifies any lines that are longer
+// than the specified console width, splitting them over two lines. returns the
+// amended document content as a slice.
+// word wrapping uses a "greedy" algorithm
+func wrapLines(s []string, consolewidth int) []string {
 	out := []string{}
 	for _, ln := range s {
-		if len(ln) <= length {
+		if len(ln) <= consolewidth {
 			out = append(out, ln)
 		} else {
-			words := strings.Split(ln, " ")
+			words := strings.SplitAfter(ln, " ")
 			var subout bytes.Buffer
 			for i, wd := range words {
 				sublen := subout.Len()
-				if sublen+len(wd)+1 <= length {
-					if sublen > 0 {
-						subout.WriteString(" ")
-					}
+				wdlen := len(wd)
+				if sublen+wdlen <= consolewidth {
 					subout.WriteString(wd)
 					if i == len(words)-1 {
 						out = append(out, subout.String())
diff --git a/cui/cui_test.go b/cui/cui_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1a286d3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cui/cui_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+package cui
+
+import (
+	"reflect"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+// tests related to issue 31
+func Test_wrapLines_space_preservation(t *testing.T) {
+	tables := []struct {
+		testinput      []string
+		expectedoutput []string
+		linelength     int
+	}{
+		{
+			//normal sentence - 20 characters - should not wrap
+			[]string{"it is her fav thingy"},
+			[]string{"it is her fav thingy"},
+			20,
+		},
+		{
+			//normal sentence - more than 20 characters - should wrap with a space at the end of the first line
+			[]string{"it is her favourite thing in the world"},
+			[]string{
+				"it is her favourite ",
+				"thing in the world",
+			},
+			20,
+		},
+	}
+
+	for _, table := range tables {
+		output := wrapLines(table.testinput, table.linelength)
+
+		if !reflect.DeepEqual(output, table.expectedoutput) {
+			t.Errorf("Expected %v, got %v", table.expectedoutput, output)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func Benchmark_wrapLines(b *testing.B) {
+	teststring := []string{
+		"0123456789",
+		"a really long line that will prolly be wrapped",
+		"a l i n e w i t h a l o t o f w o r d s",
+		"onehugelongwordaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa",
+	}
+	b.ResetTimer()
+	for n := 0; n < b.N; n++ {
+		wrapLines(teststring, 20)
+	}
+}