Indentation of paragraphs: Paragraphs should be indented 5 spaces or 1/2 inch. Some people like to indent every other line, but this is not necessary.
Vs. spaces You could have learned to indent each paragraph by pressing the spacebar five times. Back in the days of typewriters [Editor's note: You don't have to make us seem that ancient, Jack! ], five blank spaces produced a half-inch indentation quite consistently. Today it's mostly dependent on which word processor you're using.
But even if you can't remember how many times spacebar presses will indent a paragraph, there are tools that will help. Most word processors have some way of setting the indentation level for a document or section. Indenting a block of text affects all subsequent paragraphs inside that block; set the indention to a very small value (such as 1) to get a tight margin without changing any other aspects of the layout.
Some editors and IDEs will also allow you to indent selected lines or blocks. This is useful when you want to format only part of a paragraph but not the rest.
Finally, some programs offer more sophisticated features for editing margins and tabs. Microsoft Word has several tools available for adjusting these properties. Some are found in the Home tab while others require opening the Paragraph group.
Format The most popular method is to indent paragraphs by half an inch. Another option is to place a blank line between paragraphs and then not indent them. Yet another option is to use some other form of separation, such as asterisks or tabs.
As with first-line indents, you want the space to be noticeable but not so huge that the paragraphs appear unconnected. Typically, 4 to 10 points of space (0.06-0.14 ") will enough. The bigger the point size, the more space between paragraphs is required to make an apparent distinction. With small point sizes, the gap may appear too wide and with larger point sizes, the gaps may appear too narrow.
If the initial line is not indented, you must skip a line between paragraphs. This is the second method for separating paragraphs. If you look at the next paragraph, you'll see that there is a space—an empty line—between the two paragraphs.
To indent a paragraph, enter the desired distance in the Left or Right box under Page Layout. In order to indent the paragraph one tenth of an inch, write 0.1. Enter a number in the Before or After box to adjust the amount of space before or after the paragraph.
Your paper's text should be double-spaced. All page margins (top, bottom, left, and right) should be one inch wide. All text should be justified to the left. The first line of each paragraph should be indented by 0.5 inch. Each subsequent line should be indented by the amount of space remaining after typing. 5 is the default indentation for a new paragraph.
In addition, there are two other methods of indenting text that are used primarily in academic writing: tabular indents and horizontal rules. A tabular indent is used when listing information from different sources. The source names are listed down the column with their corresponding entries in row form across the page. An example would be "Smith, John; Jones, Jim; Brown, Joe." There is no fixed rule on how many names can appear on a single page. But generally, four or five names per page is acceptable. When putting more than one name on a page, a new paragraph should be used for each additional name.
The second method of indenting text is using horizontal rules. These can be applied only to single-column paragraphs. The first line will indicate the start of the paragraph with the presence of an underline or color change. The last line will indicate the end of the paragraph with the presence of an underline or color change. Between these two lines, any number of spaces can be used to separate sections within the paragraph.
Indents, margins, and spacing Leave one-inch margins on the sides and top and bottom of your text; do not justify the content. Each paragraph's first line should be indented one-half inch (or five to seven spaces) from the left margin. The American Psychological Association advises two spaces following end-of-sentence punctuation.
Indentation allows you to organize your thoughts and maintain your writing flow. Without indentation, everything would be crammed together with no room for anything else! Indenting also helps make your text more readable and accessible because it gives readers some space between sentences and paragraphs.
When typing, use Shift+Tab to move through indent levels. You can also select several lines of text and then press Ctrl+K followed by Ctrl+D to achieve the same result as indenting an entire document.
Indenting a paragraph means adding space above and below the paragraph mark. This is different from running a sentence off the right edge of the page or leaving a space at the end of a line. Paragraphs should be indented only around keywords or ideas that require further expansion or development of the sentence or paragraph.
In general, try to avoid indenting too much. If you need to indent multiple paragraphs under 10 lines in length, that's fine but if they're all indented together, the reader may experience difficulty navigating between ideas. Longer paragraphs should be broken into several shorter ones to keep the reading flow uninterrupted.
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