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Indent or leave space?

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27
Ashton
2,039 posts
Joined February 2016
Topic Starter
Ashton
“Here’s my finished essay,” I proudly announced to my class.

“Mmmm sweetie you forgot to indent your paragraphs,” the snobby girl with large flamboyant glasses smirked. I absolutely hate her.

“Well I used spaces between the paragraphs to compensate.” I remarked.

“No, honey, you need to indent,” and with that, the next three periods would continue to be savage arguing between the pretentious nerd and I. Google told us contradicting opinions: teachers were conflicted: I was confused. We handed in our essays last period, one with indents and one without.















Only time will tell who won the war of paragraphs.
Last edited by Ashton , edited 1 time in total.
johnmedina999
296 posts
Joined October 2016
johnmedina999
If you don't indent your paragraphs you are a crappy formatter. The girl is 100% right.
Ashton
2,039 posts
Joined February 2016
Topic Starter
Ashton

johnmedina999 wrote:

If you don't indent your paragraphs you are a crappy formatter. The girl is 100% right.



With that logic what I’m writing right now looks messy and not as composed than if I were to indent.

The purpose of indenting is to indicate a new paragraph. However, spaces between paragraphs do the same thing.

It is clear where my paragraphs are and ultimately comes down to the preference of the author or corporation.

Calling people who do not indent crappy formatters seems like a stretch, don’t you think?

Point is as long as the paragraphs are clearly differentiated from one another, one is not objectively better than the other, and you should adapt to the situation.
Last edited by Ashton , edited 1 time in total.
johnmedina999
296 posts
Joined October 2016
johnmedina999
There's a reason every single book other than The Hungry Hungry Caterpillar uses indentations. Indentation differentiates paragraphs, and saves space and ink. It's a convention that has been in use for a long, long time. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean that you can change it at your discretion.
Ashton
2,039 posts
Joined February 2016
Topic Starter
Ashton

johnmedina999 wrote:

There's a reason every single book other than The Hungry Hungry Caterpillar uses indentations. Indentation differentiates paragraphs, and saves space and ink. It's a convention that has been in use for a long, long time. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean that you can change it at your discretion.


You may want to fact check.
Firstly, there are many, many books that are printed without indentations. Go to your local library and I can guarantee you within minutes of looking you will find one.

Secondly, spaces between paragraphs differentiate them as well. Indents and spaces between paragraphs do the same thing. Ink and space are hardly contributing factors especially in today’s digital age.

On top of this many articles, blogs, or news reports online are done without indentation. Some books will even use a mixture of the two.

I am not changing it without discretion. You are assuming that there’s only a single way to structure writing, which may be true for specific examples but not true when we actually take a look at the wide world of literacy.
Last edited by Ashton , edited 3 times in total.
abraker
Global Moderator
8,356 posts
Joined July 2014
abraker
definitely spaces

you don't want tabs messing up the formatting of your code
johnmedina999
296 posts
Joined October 2016
johnmedina999

Ashton wrote:

You may want to fact check.
Firstly, there are many, many books that are printed without indentations. Go to your local library and I can guarantee you within minutes of looking you will find one.
Any real book that is actually relevant does not use empty lines. I'm talking about Into Thin Air, Brave New World, etc. The font size and book dimensions vary from publisher to publisher, but nowhere outside of picture books will you not find indentations. And no, your crappy "graphic novels" don't count.

Ashton wrote:

Secondly, spaces between paragraphs differentiate them as well. Indents and spaces between paragraphs do the same thing. Ink and space are hardly contributing factors especially in today’s digital age.
There's a reason why we use contractions, and don't have two second-person pronouns in today's age: it's because we like to be concise and to the point. In our "digital age", as you put it, we have made more acronyms than ever, all in pursuit of saying the same thing in a smaller size, the exact opposite of using more lines to do nothing, which is what you're doing. Your argument contradicts itself.

Ashton wrote:

On top of this many articles, blogs, or news reports online are done without indentation. Some books will even use a mixture of the two.
We're talking about books and your essay, not online articles. If you were to look in a newspaper, i.e. print media, you would find indentation and no unneeded blank lines. And please, give me an example of a book that does that. Not a children's story, or an online article, a book.

Ashton wrote:

You are assuming that there’s only a single way to structure writing, which may be true for specific examples but not true when we actually take a look at the wide world of literacy.
Again, we're not talking about the "wide world of literacy", we're talking about your essay. Has your teacher specified a specific format? If you look online, any well-known and widely-used essay format will use tabs and not empty lines. When do you get your essay back?


abraker wrote:

definitely spaces

you don't want tabs messing up the formatting of your code
Fuck Python. Braces for life.
Ashton
2,039 posts
Joined February 2016
Topic Starter
Ashton
"Well known essay formats" support both styles of indentation.

Probably the most well known essay format:

Introduction

Body paragraph 1

Body paragraph 2

body paragraph 3

Conclusion




Both block indenting, and first line indenting are acceptable. If I was in fucking Harvard, or writing a novel, I would use the first line indentation method. However, in the context of my essay, I will not be deducted points for using block indenting. I handed in an essay using the exact same format and got full marks. Your argument isn't wrong, but in the context of highschool arguing that I should be only using one way is dumb.
johnmedina999
296 posts
Joined October 2016
johnmedina999

Ashton wrote:

Probably the most well known essay format
I was talking about formats such as MLA, APA, and Chicago Style. All three of these apply to your poorly-written five-paragraph essay, and all of them call for indentation, not pointless empty lines.

If your teacher doesn't mark you down, that's your teacher's decision. You're asking whether it's right or wrong to use empty lines, which I'm answering.
Ashton
2,039 posts
Joined February 2016
Topic Starter
Ashton

johnmedina999 wrote:

Ashton wrote:

Probably the most well known essay format
I was talking about formats such as MLA, APA, and Chicago Style. All three of these apply to your poorly-written five-paragraph essay, and all of them call for indentation, not pointless empty lines.

If your teacher doesn't mark you down, that's your teacher's decision. You're asking whether it's right or wrong to use empty lines, which I'm answering.
Uhm... the original post was literally a shitpost as usual and was made for shit responses.. i never asked what was right or wrong. in my first response to you i say "Point is as long as the paragraphs are clearly differentiated from one another, one is not objectively better than the other, and you should adapt to the situation."

"It is clear where my paragraphs are and ultimately comes down to the preference of the author or corporation. "

is this not right? My teacher and my school division are not picky on what format we use. APA, chicago and so forth are styles preferred by those corporations. I'm not saying block indenting is the way I can use in all situations, but what I am saying is that in certain areas it's acceptable. Like an irrelevant school in Manitoba. Notice how all of those writing styles are for college-level writing.
johnmedina999
296 posts
Joined October 2016
johnmedina999
So by that logic, I can have each paragraph have a different font and text color in order to differentiate them, and I would be good, right? If you want to get your point across, you have to present it professionally.

People create standards in order to have a uniform presentation for your work. If the English language wasn't standardized, we probably wouldn't be able to talk to each other. If paper formats weren't standardized, we would have so many awful-looking and confusing papers. All my papers in High School were written with 12pt-sized font, Times New Roman, MLA format; I didn't go to any high-class private school, either, my school has a 1.5* rating on Yelp. Its simply good practice to indent. It takes no effort to hit tab.
Ashton
2,039 posts
Joined February 2016
Topic Starter
Ashton
I think you're over-exaggerating on how awful the format of an essay without indenting is. I'm nearly positive you have no struggles with reading what's posted here in the forums, which without a pilcrow there's literally no way to indent properly besides the spaces between paragraphs. When you are reading these long big brain debates are you struggling, confused, and not knowing of anything people are saying simply because they do not use an MLA, APA, or chicago format? Yes, it's probably better if I used one and I'll probably begin to get into that habit but I didn't mean any more from this post than shit. Most of it was exaggerated, the argument didn't last more than 10 minutes and I never announced in front of the whole class that I finished my essay.
johnmedina999
296 posts
Joined October 2016
johnmedina999
No, I'm not having trouble reading what you're writing here. I'm not stressing about this because this isn't formal writing; in fact, it's like talking face-to-face. You're not supposed to use contractions in formal writing, but this isn't formal writing. However, your essay is.

But you already turned it in, and there's no swaying you, so I guess I can stop arguing about this pointless topic if you're up to it. As you said, it's just a shitpost.
Ashton
2,039 posts
Joined February 2016
Topic Starter
Ashton

johnmedina999 wrote:

No, I'm not having trouble reading what you're writing here.


:3c:
johnmedina999
296 posts
Joined October 2016
johnmedina999
You need to make the distinction between professionalistic writing and slang.
Ashton
2,039 posts
Joined February 2016
Topic Starter
Ashton
as I've said before "I think you're over-exaggerating on how awful the format of an essay without indenting is"

sure, i didn't use a professional writing format but as you've said i don't have any time to change it nor do i need to considering at this level, the focus is primarily on other things rather than format.

As a side note, professionalistic isn't a word. "Professional writing" should be used over "professionalistic writing"
Last edited by Ashton , edited 2 times in total.
abraker
Global Moderator
8,356 posts
Joined July 2014
abraker
@John https://github.com/mathialo/bython
johnmedina999
296 posts
Joined October 2016
johnmedina999

abraker wrote:

@John https://github.com/mathialo/bython


Amazing

Ashton wrote:

As a side note, professionalistic isn't a word. "Professional writing" should be used over "professionalistic writing"
You're right, thanks.
Ashton
2,039 posts
Joined February 2016
Topic Starter
Ashton

abraker wrote:

@John https://github.com/mathialo/bython


Sorry I prefer to use the code bb code for all of my professional coding. 


bigbrain:(x)20 (y)20;;;;;;;

;;??>> 

export>>whatamidpoing>>



open;; lemon;;



yes;
abraker
Global Moderator
8,356 posts
Joined July 2014
abraker
lel look at this script kiddie

real h4x0rz use psuedocode to hack the NSA
keremaru
228 posts
Joined November 2017
keremaru
ok
johnmedina999
296 posts
Joined October 2016
johnmedina999

Ashton wrote:

yes;
abraker
Global Moderator
8,356 posts
Joined July 2014
abraker 
yes;nt
johnmedina999
296 posts
Joined October 2016
johnmedina999

abraker wrote:

yes;nt
$\not\text{yes}$
Serraionga
11,487 posts
Joined November 2014
Serraionga
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abraker
Global Moderator
8,356 posts
Joined July 2014
abraker
get:out;nt
johnmedina999
296 posts
Joined October 2016
johnmedina999

Serraionga wrote:

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