The queries might include char typed columns in the output. The output of these columns can be extended by sqlplus when multi-byte character set was set in the environment (NLS_LANG variable). Of course choosing NLS_LANG value should not be determined by the cosmetic effects of the output only; there are more important things like character set of input files, operating system output handling etc. All that I wanted to say - just know that "detail".
There are examples :
1. NLS_LANG=.al32utf8
SQL> r
1* select 'status' from dual
'STATUS'
------------------
status
2. NLS_LANG was unset (then us7ascii character set is used) or set to single-byte character set
SQL> select 'status' from dual ;
'STATU
------
status
Good Luck !
