Paragraph Formats

Welcome back everyone! How was your Golden Week? I hope you had a great time and relaxed a bit; we have a long stretch before summer vacation!

I have some things I'd like to remind you about...

First, your 2nd essay, the Comparison Essay, first draft, is due on Thursday, May 12.

Second, please don't retype your essay when I give you your first draft back to revise. You should make changes on your first draft, which you should have saved in your computer somewhere. Every time you retype, you make new typing mistakes, so it's difficult to make progress towards a perfect final draft. Always save your essays and make corrections on your saved document.

Next, remember that there is always ONE space after a period or comma (or any punctuation mark). If you have no spaces or two spaces, I will ask you to change it. Also remember that there is NEVER a space before a punctuation mark.

Finally, let's talk about paragraph formats. If you'll remember, I told you to choose either of two formats, indent style or block style. Following are examples of both.


Indent Style
This is the most common paragraph style in books and magazines. You will notice that the first line of the paragraph is indented about 4 letter spaces. In Japanese magazines, it's OK to indent just one character space, but in English writing, this doesn't look like an indent. Four letter spaces looks great for English essays!
You'll also notice that there is no space between paragraphs. When you want to begin a new paragraph, you hit Enter on your keyboard, and you'll go to the next line. If you use Tab for your indents, the word processor will indent for you automatically. You can also adjust the indent size if you like.
When we write paragraphs, there is sometimes some space after the last word of the paragraph. This is not a problem.


Block Style

Block style paragraphs are most commonly used in business letters, but in Essay Writing Class, you may use block style if you like. With block style, you'll notice that you don't indent the first line of the paragraph; you just begin typing.

But if you don't indent, how will you know when a new paragraph begins? The space between paragraphs tells you! Notice that in the Indent Style paragraphs above, there are no spaces between paragraphs.

Please remember that I'd like you to choose one format or the other. Please don't combine them! That means, if you indent, please don't make a space between paragraphs. If you use block style, then please don't indent (not even one space!)