both ways are fine. which method uses less wire depends on the relative
positions of feed-switch-load.
as the other poster said, when finish walls are up, you do them any way you
can.
bill


"Robert11" wrote in message
...
Hello:

Over the years, I have done a bit of relatively simple wiring around the
house.

Have just finished reading the book by H. Richter, Wiring Simplified, 40th
ed. with great interest. A very handy little volume.

Have the following question for those of you who might be doing
this stuff for a living, please:

Whenever I have wired a new wall switch, I have always brought a piece of
NM
wire from the source to the switch, the black going to one terminal.
Then I ran a second piece of NM with the black from the other switch
terminal to the new light fixture, along with its white lead.
(the whites would also be tied together for the two pieces of NM at the
switch box).

I see in the book (p 110) where it is apparently permissible to just use a
single piece of NM to the switch, with the white being re-marked black.
This NM would then effectively be placed in series with the normal black
wire from the source and to the fixture.
(the white from the source also going to the light fixture).

The approach i have been using which I described in the first paragraph
isn't even described in the book.

So, other than the first approach using twice the amount of NM, is there
any
advantage one way or the other ?

What do you folks do in a simple situation like this ? Why ?

Thanks,
Bob