Alignment — good or evil?
Not that kind of alignment, D&D players. What I’m talking about is text alignment.
One of the annoying variances in manuscript formatting that tends to annoy me as an editor–or rather as a reader who happens to be reading something in manuscript format–is when writers put their name and/or any other information in the header aligned to the left margin. You see, there is a reason that standard ms. format dictates you put your name/title of the story/page count, etc. on the right. Well, there might actually be more than one reason, but the one that seems obvious to me, having read so many thousands of mss. over the years is that when that information is left-aligned, the reader trips over it every time he/she turns the page. If you look, you’ll notice books never do that either–so when you flick your eyes to the top of the next page, the first words you see are the continuation of the text, rather than being interrupted by the title of the story or the name of the author.
Andy Spackman
11:30 am Feb-28-2008Neutral good, but my favorite to play is chaotic.
For manuscripts, what about the first page? I always align subsequent headers on the right. But on the first page I align my name and full contact info, etc., to the left. Bad form?
As for printed books, many align their headers in the middle. But many align to the corners, so the lefthand page is aligned left, the right to the right. Many do the opposite, the header on the left page aligns right and the right left. Either way, on every other page the first text you see is the author or title of the book.
It’s never bothered me much before. But thanks to you I’m sure I’ll notice it every time I flip a page from now on and be annoyed. So much for my blissful header ignorance.
BTW–F&SF itself follows that last pattern. The first text you see on every odd-numbered page is the story title.
John Joseph Adams
6:32 pm Feb-29-2008First page is the exception. Info on both the right and left is fine there.
I’m not sure you *will* notice it in books, as apparently I never noticed it in F&SF. In manuscript format it’s definitely noticeable though.