Space before ? or !

I always used to think that there should be a space between a word and a following exclamation mark or question mark. I'm not sure where I picked up the idea - several decades have passed since I started learning English in missionary school. In any case, I've noticed in recent years that most writers place either of the two punctuation marks right after the preceding word without any space in between. Is putting a space before ? or ! also an acceptable convention or have I simply been wrong all these years ?