A "real" doctor would take your white blood cell count; the Text Doctor wants to know your white space count. That's because the easiest way to improve your readability is to increase your use of white space, defined as any space on the page or screen that has no text or graphic.

Readers today skim, scan, skip, sort, and search for relevant information. To make sure they find the most important information, try using 50% white space. If you can't achieve that goal, do what you can. Whatever white space you add will help your reader find what you want them to read.

Three tips to increase white space

1. Create vertical lists.

Instead of packing a paragraph with serial items, which makes the reader wade slowly through each item, create a vertical list like this so that readers can skim, scan, or search your points:
• Item 1
• Item 2
• Item 3


2. Create tables to present a lot of data.

Tables can present facts or figures in a compact space; they can help the reader compare data arranged in rows and columns. Be sure to leave white space around the items in the cells, but not too much. Microsoft (R) Word has a table function that allows you to adjust cell height and width and within that function, you can "Autofit" cells to your text to get just the right amount of white space.


3. Use headings.

Headings help subdivide text so readers can scan the overall structure easily and read only what they need. Headings add white space before and after themselves. Avoid using ALL CAPITALS or underlining in a heading.

Four white-space practices to avoid

1. Don't indent the first line of paragraphs.

Indenting eliminates valuable alignment of text against the left margin and makes the reader's eye search for the left alignment it craves. To indicate a paragraph break, insert an extra space between paragraphs. Apply indentation only to entire paragraphs. (Yes, this format, called full block, is a change from the older style, called modified block.)


2. Don't center large blocks of text.

Centered text makes the reader's eye bounce around. It's better to align text and headings to the left margin than to center them. The exception is flyers or advertising text, but even these can benefit from minimal centering.

3. Don't fully justify text.

Fully justified text looks very, very controlled and forces extra spaces between your words, which will distract the reader's eye. This may slow the reader down as much as 10 percent.


4. Don't use two spaces after a period or other end punctuation.

Most word-processing software is now proportionally spaced (versus monospacing in the old typewriter days). If you put two spaces after the period, the result is an awkward gap in your text.

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