![]() Narrative works such as novels and histories are written to be read. More words per page means fewer pages per book, which saves maybe 10-20 percent of printing costs.Ī factor that has not been mentioned yet is the difference between material that is meant to be read vs. A passage with shorter paragraphs would gain even more from indenting instead of adding space. I haven't counted the words, but indenting that text instead of spacing between paragraphs allows 8 percent more words per page.Īnd those are big, blocky paragraphs. The example on the right has 26 lines, compared to 24 on the left. Your example demonstrates one reason not to format paragraphs by indenting instead of inter-paragraph spacing: You can fit more words on a page. It would be interesting to read controlled studies of these two paragraphing styles. But (if I understand correctly), research does not support that conclusion. Perhaps much of "readability" is in what style we are used to.įor example, I had long accepted the idea that sans serif fonts are less legible than serif fonts for print. A few of the non-indented ones somehow lose their inter-paragraph spacing in some e-readers, which makes it very difficult to read.Ī friend recently published a book with inter-paragraph spacing, no indents, and sans-serif font. Most of the ebooks I buy (and I buy a lot) use indentation for paragraphing. ![]() The other style, with inter-paragraph spacing and no indentation, seems like a far more recent style to me, achieving popularity with the rise of the Worldwide Web. If you don't remember very well where you should put the return address in the rare case of not using a letterhead, just follow the links to the full block or modified block business letter layouts where Dixie explains in detail the position of the return address and shows you the examples.By far the majority of print books format paragraphs by indenting, and not by inserting space between paragraphs. However, business to business letters are much more common, so on this page she decided to use a letterhead in the business letter example. She did it to show you proper format for the business letters written by individuals. You probably have noticed that Dixie used the return/sender's address in her previous two examples of formatting business letters. And if you justify to yourself using this one, go for it. Well, there are three layouts to choose from. On the other hand, a lot of companies still use it even in the US. And in the US the indented letter does look a little outdated. In a lot of countries indenting paragraphs in a business letter is still a must, and Dixie would like to remind you again that on this website she mostly focuses on the US ways. The indented layout of business letters is what people are most used to because this is how letters were written before PCs which really has been a long time, come to think of it. The only difference between the two is that the semi-block letter's paragraphs are indented one tab stop.Īnother page Dixie highly recommends to the first-time visitors of her site is full block business letter where she describes the major parts of a business letter. The indented/semi-block style of business letters is very similar to the modified block and Dixie would suggest you follow the link above if you haven't been to her page about modified block business letter yet. (Do you remember the other two? Dixie is really sure you do, but you still can find them in the links below just in case).ĭixie does not like repeating the same information on different pages too much, so she would like to remind you on this page that she has two other examples which in her opinion contain all the information on formatting business letters you need. In the above example you can see the last business letter layout out of the three possible ones. Dixie would like to bring to your attention an indented (semi-block) business letter.Ĭan You Name All Business Letter Layouts?
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