Paragraph indenting and spacing

You have a choice between indenting the first line of paragraphs (often used in student papers, books, and magazine articles) or using unindented (block) paragraphs (as in business memos and reports). If you do not indent first lines, then you should use a space break between paragraphs.

Text with a first-line paragraph indent is typical for extended text like an academic paper.

Text with a hanging indent can be useful for technical documentation, newsletter or résumé design, or a bibliography.

A block indent is used in academic papers to set off long quotations.

Paragraph indent in an academic paper

Hanging indents in academic papers (MLA and APA)

Block indents in academic papers (MLA and APA)

hanging indent A format in which the first line of text is aligned at the left and subsequent lines are indented.

block indent Indentation of a section of text from the left and sometimes also the right margin.