# What is this?



## John_O (Jun 30, 2013)

I was reading about tips on formatting manucripts. How do I format my Manuscript?

Number nine said "*Justification? *Left justify your manuscript always." What in Sam Hill is that!!??


----------



## Gargh (Jun 30, 2013)

Align it to the left margin, that is all. Sounds odd doesn't it? In MS Word the options look like this...
View attachment 4731


The one highlighted is a symbol for fully justified text (spaced out to reach both margins). The others (Left to right) symbolise aligned left, to the centre and right.

It basically means, don't justify everything full out (like I do!) which is more generally used in newspaper columns. Leave it ragged on the right margin which is the default setting on most word processing programs* 

*and also for making posts on here!


----------



## philistine (Jun 30, 2013)

Justifying to the left is standard? Since when? 

I've read in multiple places full justification with first paragraph line indentation is the standard. If not, what have I been doing with my life? :dread:

EDIT: I've just read the source of that information, and took the time to try out a few of the other points. Although I've read about estimating total word count by average words (250 in this case) plus number of pages, I'd never actually tried it before. For my novel, I was before now using the ad hoc Word estimator, which at the moment, says my total word count is exactly 25,790. 

However, I just used the aforementioned method and have somehow gained 11,500 words, for a total of 37,250. That's one hell of a discrepancy. My margins were already set at 1.25 inches, somewhere in the middle of the suggested size in that page. Now, which estimate is more accurate?


----------



## Terry D (Jun 30, 2013)

Left justified margins have been standard forever. I think Guttenberg started it.


----------



## John_O (Jun 30, 2013)

Gargh said:


> Align it to the left margin, that is all. Sounds odd doesn't it? In MS Word the options look like this...
> View attachment 4731
> 
> 
> ...



Ah, cool! I see what you're talking about. Thanks!!


----------



## Myers (Jul 1, 2013)

Terry D said:


> Left justified margins have been standard forever. I think Guttenberg started it.



I don't know about manuscripts, but Gutenberg set type with full justification, and that's still the standard for most books.


----------



## shinyford (Jul 1, 2013)

Regardless of how the work will look when published, the argument goes that left-justified and double spaced text at 10 or 12 point, preferably in a san-serif font, is easier for editors and prospective buyers to read. 

And it's all about ease of reading. It's a 'know your market' thing: your market isn't the sci-fi reader, or the reader of romance, or the teen who's into werewolves; your market is the publisher who may buy your book. I guess the idea is to make it easy as possible for them to read and enjoy - and apparently, left-justified and double-spaced text is the way forward.


----------



## Myers (Jul 1, 2013)

Yes, left justified generally looks better in a document created in a word processor. To achieve full justification, the words have to be spaced out more, and that makes it harder to read. I believe the double spacing convention isn't about readability. That convention came about because it leaves space between lines for notations and proofreader's marks.


----------



## Terry D (Jul 1, 2013)

Myers said:


> I don't know about manuscripts, but Gutenberg set type with full justification, and that's still the standard for most books.



Ah! But have you seen the manuscript for that first printed book?... That's OK, neither have I-- my point was that left justified has been standard manuscript (as per the OP) format for many, many years.


----------



## Myers (Jul 1, 2013)

Terry D said:


> Ah! But have you seen the manuscript for that  first printed book?... That's OK, neither have I-- my point was that  left justified has been standard manuscript (as per the OP) format for  many, many years.



Sorry. I understood what you were saying. I just thought I'd throw in that beside-the-point little fact for the sake of accuracy. 

Left justified as a standard is probably just based on how the typewriter worked. You can't do it any other way, I don't think. So it was probably a default more than anything else.


----------



## Cran (Jul 1, 2013)

A document can be left-justified with or without first line indent; they have always been independent settings as the first is a page setting, the second a par setting. 

Left-justified writing has been the standard for centuries_ in the West_ (ie, originating in Europe). Other civilisations used/still use right-justified or top-justified (with vertical lines, and usually right-to-left line progressions and pars).


----------



## luckyscars (Jul 1, 2013)

Left justified is indeed the standard in English language publishing in the US and also UK. Know this from experience and severe scrutiny - I prefer full justification and *used* to habitually do it until I learned the truth.

It is also correct that this is because it is supposedly easier to read. I don't know who decided this, but understand its based on some science. Never noticed it being easier myself.

As with all this nonsense, it is better to go with the majority opinion, assuming you have no strong objections either way.


----------



## Myers (Jul 2, 2013)

The science is pretty simple. Left justification is easier to read in a word processing application because in order to achieve full justification, the words have to be more spaced out. The more space between words, the harder it is to read.  

With full justification, the word spacing is based on the ratio between type size and column width. The bigger the type and thinner the column, the more the words need to be spaced out to get an aligned column on the right.

The majority of printed books are fully justified.  The type is relatively small and the column widths are wide enough so that full justification doesn’t leave big gaps between the words.

As for why manuscripts were originally left justified, the more I think about it, that’s probably because that’s how a typewriter works. And left justification for manuscripts could have only been around since the advent of the typewriter. Before that they were handwritten. And because left justification is easier to read from a word processing program, the standard held. So it seems like the reasons are all very practical, and based on both form and function.


----------



## Staff Deployment (Jul 2, 2013)

Cran said:


> A document can be left-justified with or without first line indent; they have always been independent settings as the first is a page setting, the second a par setting.



I think it's the other way around, but this is the correct explanation otherwise. Justification is linked to the paragraph settings, while indentation is linked to the page settings (you set indentations using the 'ruler' at the top).

You can still use different indents for different paragraphs and vice versa, however.


----------



## Cran (Jul 2, 2013)

Staff Deployment said:


> I think it's the other way around, but this is the correct explanation otherwise. Justification is linked to the paragraph settings, while indentation is linked to the page settings (you set indentations using the 'ruler' at the top).
> 
> You can still use different indents for different paragraphs and vice versa, however.


It's not the other way around. If you want to check that, open any version of Word and you'll see that _justification_ is in [Page] or [Page Set Up/Layout], and_ indent _is in [Paragraph]. It's been that way around in my 30 odd years of working with newspapers and magazines, and I don't think they changed it just for me.


----------



## Staff Deployment (Jul 2, 2013)

Yep, I think you're right.

When I was in my early(er) teens I read up on Word quite a bit and used to know it back-to-front. I think I've forgotten most of it by now because I rarely use the program these days.


----------



## Cran (Jul 2, 2013)

I've forgotten most of everything I try to think of - it's like there's a auto-verification filter in my head, and I can't remember the password.

I do vaguely recall having to do a quick course in Word in '97, when I started with Louthean Publishing (mining and resources magazine publishing house) - I was late to the digital revolution.


----------



## Sandy (Jul 10, 2013)

I think the general rule for paper submissions is left aligned (ragged right), double spaced, one inch margins all round, typically 12 point text, usually Times New Roman or Courier (TNR seems to be the most often requested).  If in doubt, check the agent or publisher's submission requirements page.

I'm told that printing has almost always been fully justified simply because they could easily do so with handset type and later with machine set.  It tends to be about 10 to 12 percent more efficient in space usage, a premium considering the cost of paper then.  Hyphenation helps a lot.  But manually justifying on a typewriter was a pain, so it became flush left, at least in western culture.  There was a brief time some years ago that mass media experimented with ragged right formatting -- supposedly easier to read -- but the fad faded.


----------

