When concocting a narrative it is imperative to consider not only subject matter but the manner in which the piece is delivered. That is, structure and appearance. We are given examples of such consideration In The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy , from the infamous “black page” to the odd placement of the prologue and the many tangential paths taken by the author all throughout the work; or in more contemporary examples from authors such as Chuck Palahniuk who often flows from one narrative to the next in a seamless sort of staccato. These are perhaps elements which we as essayists may also take into account when developing a writing strategy. Such pieces are, after all, written with the understanding that someone will be reading them, therefore it is not only for the writer’s vanity or aesthetic preference that certain choices are made, but also with the perception of the audience in mind. Still, one would be hard-pressed to call every adjustment that is made absolutely necessarily—even if they do contribute in the long run—without examining them.
Without doubt the subject is the most important cog in any bit of writing; what’s the point in reading something with, well, no point? Arriving at a suitable topic, however, is the easy part, because soon after a writer will realize that substance is required—particularly if an expected length is assigned—and the organization of this substance is where many of us tend to drop off. We are told from grade school that every worthwhile composition, be it narrative or informative, must have a beginning, middle, and end—whether or not we are equipped to fill these sections with interesting a relevant prose is another matter. How then is one to grip the reader if, even with sufficient material, the composition fails to separate itself from any other of its sort. The answer is simple, though likely underhanded: fool the eye. Even so, a smart author will recognize this technique as an opportunity to combine substance with aesthetic, thus ensuring that indeed someone will read what he has produced.
There’s something about the way a piece of writing looks that seems to have a draw all on its own, or a way of contributing some defining aspect to the work. This can be a matter of spacing between sentences—the typical double-spaced format used in academic papers for example— between paragraphs, or even between the letters themselves. Anyone utilizing today’s word processing programs may have noticed the myriad of options available in that regard. Page layout and orientation, separation by columns, spacing prior to a block of text or after it. All of which contribute to not only the aesthetic but the assumptions. Alignment, for example, comes in four option: left, right, center, and justified.
If you are reading an essay, right alignment is expected—justified if you’re looking for a particular sense of neatness—
left alignment for headers,
and center for “quotations”, Titles, or perhaps poetry—
though the last seems to have gone out of fashion.
Then of course one may consider margins, how best to format them and whether or not the default is sufficient for what you are attempting to accomplish. Many times the student pressed for time and out of ideas will make adjustments to the margins in order to create the
appearance of a longer document—note that educators are rarely fooled by this
technique. Elsewise margin modification may be used to place emphasis on a
single block of text or to stylize. Again, this is both determined by
preference and necessity.
Although typically we find margin to be one of the least styled elements of any given piece, it is not to be neglected. Separation from the norm, if you will—which, incidentally, is sure to get you noticed whether you want to be or not. Remember that although your average margin is somewhere between 1” to 1.25”, 1.5” or -.25” are perfectly fine if you can get away with it.
Alongside the discussion or margin, paragraph indentation should also be mentioned, because unlike popular belief you will not find it everywhere. A blog, for example, is very well likely to be lacking—which is often made up for with extra spacing between paragraphs—whereas a semi-formal essay (as evinced here) may contain more indentation than could possibly be needed. Whichever direction you decide to go in regard to special arrangement, be sure to strike a balance between:
far
too
much
and: no one could possibly read this.
The problem with formatting is often that, much like with cooking, it and its associated adjustments are to be treated as a spice—which means adding too much will detract from the overall and may cause whoever’s sampling to gag in horror. Which brings us to the subject of font and type-face. The first given anyone wanting to be taken seriously knows is to promptly avoid color; text should remain in all black with styles such as bold or italicizing used sparingly as well as the underline—save when proper citation or emphasis calls for them—and the strikethrough (which is hardly used at all). Our main concern, however, is with type face—or “font face” as it is known for modern word processing—which tends to be among the top fallbacks for padding an essay. Lettering appearance is important not only for readability but again, as with spacing or paragraph arrangement, the “vibe”, or the creation of initial assumptions about the piece.
Consider your default fonts: Times New Roman, Arial, Vedana, and—recently with the coming of Microsoft Office 2007—Calibri. No matter which you use a certain air of professionalism seems to be assumed, because the letters are proportionate, smooth, and clear. These are what we call “sans-serif” typeface—with the exception of Times New Roman which is “seriffed”—because they lack structural details at the end strokes, which often gives them a more rounded appearance. Times New Roman is included in the group of “preferred” fonts because despite being a serif font it is not difficult to decipher and presents itself as polished or proper. One may notice that some of these faces are naturally larger than others, Verdana as compared to Calibri for example, which adds another consideration when deciding on font. Other font-faces may be used to achieve a certain look. Courier New for something akin to the way a typewriter produced letters, or Lucinda to emulate handwriting; still it is necessary to take into account both the sort of piece you are writing and the target audience before delving too far into elaborate font. Else you may come up with something lovely to look at but impossible to read.
That’s “impossible to read” for anyone not fluent in Wingdings.
Essentially, and if nothing else, what one must remember is the “who”, “what”, and “how”: who is this composition for, what is it you want them to get out of it, and how are you going to keep them from tossing it after the first sentence. Although most of the weight will be shouldered by subject matter and conveyance strategy, aesthetic is nothing to shrug at. After all, no matter how good the book is, the price tag is on the cover.
