Publications will have their own style, and they will change your writing to match it.Luckily, you can just write in the style you find comfortable, and then change the style as the last thing you do before printing or sending the file.* Style guides may have set rules as to which format you should use, which you should follow whether you like them or not.If you have to (and the points that follow show why you might) you'll be glad you didn't actually type extra spaces and empty paragraphs manually. Because of this, you can change the style of every paragraph in a document from one of the styles above to the other, and back again, in one fell swoop.

If you don't know what the options here do, learn them). ( Word, LibreOffice Writer and Writer all offer these changes under Format > Styles and Formatting. The different types of spacing are a matter of the style of the paragraph and are made not by pressing the space or enter/return keys extra times, but by changing the styles of the document. Typically, you press the enter/return key to start a new paragraph, and do so with the shift key held down to enter a line-break within the paragraph in question (not done within normal English prose only required for addresses and some special cases where you are not writing normal sentences).

If you are using a word-processor, you should be making paragraphs happen in the same way regardless.

The important thing to realise, is that these are matters of typographic choices, rather than of writing.

More obscure options such as running the line on and placing a pilcrow (¶) between them, can be found, but are extremely rare. Other styles are certainly found combining the two is sometimes done, but generally considered excessive, while having nothing to indicate a new paragraph other than the line-break of the previous line, is not unheard of, particularly in cheaper paperbacks. Maecenas rutrum, ligula et adipiscing aliquet, elit augue sodales tellus, nec lacinia lorem nunc ut est.Īnd indenting the second and subsequent paragraphs of a section, with no extra vertical space: Proin sed nisi magna, vitae convallis velit. Etiam massa metus, faucibus id lobortis non. Duis feugiat laoreet urna, auctor iaculis diam fringilla sed. In augue lacus, tincidunt eu mollis vel, pellentesque ac libero. Quisque elementum aliquet dolor, vitae ultricies risus sagittis vel.Īenean lobortis sagittis erat sed imperdiet. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. The most common styles are block paragraphs with extra vertical space (typically, the same amount as a blank line of text would take up): There are two separate things here, and I'm not sure which (or both) you are talking about.Īs a rule, paragraphs will make some sort of use of whitespace to indicate where they end or begin. Is it just when you start talking about something completely different that you should put a space, or should they follow on too? Should the space even be there or is it just something people do? I have been putting a space when it looks like too much of a wall of text but I am finding that paragraphs without spaces between them, look a bit weird. I am getting confused when I write long reports and essays about when I should be writing paragraphs with a space separating and when I should have them following one another without a space. I am not fully sure if this is the right place for this question but I am guessing has something to do with structure and usage so hopefully it is alright here. The white space goes either between paragraphs, or else in front of them, but probably not both.

Clickcharts no space between paragraphs