Grabber Girl here. I'm Injohn Fogarty, your friendly guide to the English language. Today, we're going to talk about why we have indents in documents and when and how to use them. And then I have an interesting correction and extension about where we get the word for Micah.

To indent or not indent, that is the question. And it's a question even Shakespeare probably

struggled with. It's easy to take these harmless little blank spaces that frequently appear at the

beginning of a paragraph for granted. Yet, surprisingly, indentation

has a rich history, offers plenty of functionality, and depicts changing aesthetics. So why is it that we

only sometimes use indents? Is there an indentation rule? And if so, what is it? The answer is both yes and no. It depends on

your industry style guide. Tradebook publishing follows the Chicago Manual of Style, so it generally

uses indents. The Modern Language Association, American Medical Association, and American

Psychological Association also recommend indenting.

On the other hand, journalism, which uses associated press style, doesn't use indents.

The publication type also determines indentation. In addition to books and newspapers,

magazines, journals, e-books, yes, they're different,

websites and blogs, podcasts, and more all have specific guidelines. So although indenting itself

isn't a right or wrong thing, you'll need to follow your company's style guide, at least that is

while you're on the clock.

Technically speaking, an indent is a paragraph setting, and the goal of any manuscript is to have

the first line of each paragraph consistently spaced throughout. In Microsoft Word,

you can customize the size of your first-line indentation by going to paragraph

settings. Look for first-line indent under special. That's where you can adjust the indent size.

In most word processing programs, you can also set the first-line indent by sliding the text

ruler marker to whatever point you want.

Then each time you hit return or enter, the preset or designated amount of space is added

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