Computer Skills
Beginner
60 mins
Teacher/Student led
Learning Goals
Learning Outcomes
+80 XP
What you need:
Chromebook/Laptop/PC or iPad/Tablet

Paragraph Formatting: Alignment, Spacing, Indentation

Learn to apply alignment, spacing, and indentation to transform a wall of text into a professional, readable document. You'll fix common formatting mistakes and apply the techniques to your own proposal.

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    1 - Introduction

    Welcome

    Today you fix the invisible stuff that decides whether a reader keeps reading or puts your document down. Alignment, line spacing, paragraph spacing, and indents are what make a proposal look like something an adult will take seriously rather than something written in a panic the night before.

    By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

    • Apply left, centre, right and justified alignment appropriately
    • Adjust line and paragraph spacing for readability
    • Use first-line indents and tabs cleanly and consistently

    Warm-up

    Think about the last document you actually read all the way through, a Revenue letter, a college prospectus, a menu, a match programme. What made it easy on the eye? Now think about a document you gave up on halfway. What went wrong visually? Keep those two examples in your head, you're about to learn the techniques that separate them.

    👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

    +5 XP

    2 - Key Concepts

    Four techniques do almost all the work in paragraph formatting. Learn these and you'll never produce a document that looks thrown together again.

    ConceptWhy it mattersExample
    Alignment
    How text sits against the margins.
    Options: left, centre, right, justified.    		Mixed alignment mid-document reads as careless; consistent alignment signals you cared enough to lookLeft-align the body of a Work Experience report; centre only the title. A CV with some bullets centred and others left-aligned tells an employer you didn't proofread.
    Line spacing
    The gap between lines inside one paragraph.
    Options: single, 1.15, 1.5, double.    		Single spacing looks cramped on screen; too much spacing wastes space and makes the document feel padded1.15 or 1.5 is the standard for reports, proposals, and college applications, what most employers and tutors expect to see
    Paragraph spacing
    The gap before and after each paragraph.    		Set it once in the paragraph menu, never by pressing Enter twice. The blank-line hack goes uneven the minute you edit; proper paragraph spacing stays consistent no matter what you change—
    First-line indent
    A small step in at the start of each paragraph (usually 1.27cm).    		Set it through the paragraph menu, not the Tab key. Tells the reader "new idea" without needing a blank line. Tabs at the start of paragraphs are the telltale sign of a rushed documentPick either first-line indent or blank-line spacing between paragraphs, formal documents use one or the other, never both at once

    Show the hidden marks

    Every word processor has a button that shows paragraph marks (¶), tabs, and spaces (·). Turn it on when you're fixing formatting, it's the difference between guessing and seeing.

    👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

    +10 XP

    3 - Step-by-step Task: Fix Four Common Paragraph Mistakes

    You're going to start with a short sample of text that has four classic paragraph-formatting mistakes, and you'll fix each one in turn. This is the dry run, once you've seen the fixes work on the sample, you'll apply the same techniques to your real proposal in the Independent Practice.

    +15 XP

    4 - Common Issues

    Common Issues

    IssueSolution
    My formatting change only applies to one paragraph, but I wanted it for the whole documentSelect the text first (use {{kbd:Ctrl+A}} or {{kbd:Cmd+A}} for the whole document) before you apply alignment or spacing. Without a selection, the change only affects the paragraph your cursor is in.
    I can't see where one paragraph ends and the next beginsTurn on the paragraph marks ({{menu:Home -> Show/Hide ¶}} in Word Online, {{menu:View -> Show non-printing characters}} in Google Docs). Every ¶ is a paragraph break, that's what line spacing and paragraph spacing act on.
    My first-line indent also pushes every other line to the rightYou've set a left indent, not a first-line indent. Open the indentation dialog again and make sure {{btn:Special}} is set to {{code:First line}}, not the general {{btn:Left}} indent box.
    The 12pt spacing after my paragraphs looks like a huge gapCheck that you also deleted the blank ¶ lines between paragraphs. If you have both the 12pt spacing AND blank lines, you get a double gap. Pick one.
    +10 XP

    5 - Independent Practice

    Independent Practice

    Your goal: Take your project proposal from a wall of text to a document someone will actually want to read, by applying the four paragraph-formatting fixes you just practised.
    Time: ~20 minutes
    Task: Open your {{code:Digital_Portfolio}} folder and open {{code:03_proposal_draft}}. Add three new paragraphs to the document, one describing the project's purpose, one describing the plan, and one describing the expected outcome. Then apply the paragraph-formatting techniques from the walkthrough to the whole document so it reads consistently from top to bottom. You'll also need to decide for your own document: first-line indents OR block-paragraph gaps, never both.
    Success criteria:
    • Three new paragraphs (purpose, plan, outcome) each reading clearly on its own
    • Alignment, line spacing, and the gap between paragraphs are consistent across the whole document, not patchy or mixed
    • The document uses either first-line indents OR block-paragraph gaps, but not both at once
    • With formatting marks turned on, there are no stray tab arrows or empty ¶ lines between paragraphs
    +15 XP

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