Do You Write Past The Right Hand Margin?

[Inkyfingerz]

I found out recently that a huge number of students in my school will write into the margin continuously. I don't mean to finish out a word that didn't quite fit. They write to the end of the paper. I had a steadfast belief my whole life up until now that the margin should not be written past unless you have to finish a word and if the word is long and you know it won't fit before the margin you take it down to the next line.

 

After some straw polls in a few of my classes it seems that my peers honored or ignored the margin based on the elementary school they went to. We have four in district and of those who attended the same one as I did, the majority honored the margin. Students who had attended a different school ignored it. I believe my school had a large majority of "between the lines" writers, two of the schools were a fairly even split or too under represented to get a fair result, and the fourth school had a large majority of "outside the lines" writers.

 

The results were all over the place in my AP (college level) English class. There's only one section of AP English 12 so anyone in the class is a very good writer. There's clearly no link to writing ability/knowledge of written English and respect to the margin. At least in this small sample size.

 

 

 

So I though I would bring it to the board. Everyone here loves fountain pens and many devote a large sum of time to handwriting practice, journaling, or other forms of writing. So the question is:

 

Do you write within the margin or to the end of the page?

 

 

PS: please elaborate in a post why you stop where you do. Is one way correct and the other wrong?

 

Edit: I also had no idea if I should post this here or in penmanship. I apologize if it is misplaced.

Edited January 31, 2013 by Inkyfingerz

[mbradley]

I assume the margin is intended to be the stopping point, in my journals I tend to write beyond them as I am maximizing paper use and not submitting the writing for formal review. My last English course was in 1977, I may have forgotten the rule

Michael

[mirosc]

My opinion (in the job) is: writing beyong the margin is ugly and impolite!

If one feels compelled or has to use paper with a margin, he should respect that margin. Or use regular paper. As I am correcting a lot of texts I feel that a student writing on the margin is invading the space that is reserved for me.

Over here we correct not only content but also language and form (Content has to be presented nicely). I deduct points for bad form, i.e. ugly or illegible writing, ugly crossing out,... and also for writing on the margin.

 

If in private - well, everyone can do as he wants to. I personally respect the margin even then or use paper without margin.

Edited January 31, 2013 by mirosc

[Harlequin]

I think, much like the lines themselves, the margins are simply a guide. Think of them as being akin to the "warning track" in baseball- it lets you know you only have so much space left to finish the word without having to hyphenate. But just as in baseball, you don't stop at the warning track, you keep going to the wall. So I don't stop writing completely at the margin, but I will try to fit as much on a line without having to hyphenate.

[ethernautrix]

It's been a very long time since I've used paper with margins -- okay, notepads, legal pads, but I don't use them for formal purposes.

 

In my journals, I tend to go from edge to edge with very narrow margins on either side. If there were margin lines, I'd probably ignore them.

 

In Word documents, I heed the 1" margin.

 

Usually. Not always. Sometimes narrower, sometimes wider, depending on what I'm doing.

[Wheatflower]

I stop at the margin line, but that's because I'm writing fiction, and I need to save that margin space for later when I go back for the first pass of editing/revising and need to write more stuff.

[The Good Captain]

I don't have any notebooks or sheets where there is a margin on the right hand side at all. I usually leave a small space on that side though as it's not always easy to write right up to the centre or spine of the book anyway.

[UK Mike]

I am another without margins in notebooks.

I use A4 pads with a left hand margin but that is about it.

My writing nowadays is purely for leisure purposes so I am no longer taking business or education notes. On the rare occasions I want to add a note to something I have written I may use a fine pen and just make a small mark in the margin.

[PAKMAN]

I try to honor the margin on the right but find that sometimes in my journal I think that I have to try to finish a word (I never hyphenate in personal writing). The main reason that the margin should be honored is that when you try to copy a document, the coppier won't catch the stuff written out past the established margins!

[requiescat]

I have a reasonable left margin but write to the right edge of the sheet. I was never taught that this was wrong at any of the U.S. public, Department of Defense, or South Korean private schools I went to. I'm a writer, but I tend to do roughs longhand (unless I go directly into Scrivener) and take them into Scrivener for revisions. When I do need to add or change material, I write *, +, etc. (random little symbols) and then go to the next available page, write the same symbol, and add the material there. It's a stupid system but so far it works.

[RLTodd]

I will write over the margin, down the margin, occasionally up the margin, put separate paragraphs in the margin. It is paper, it is blank, it is fair game.

 

It I want neat I will talk to a typesetter.

[TheGreatRoe]

My initial response was, "I don't give a #$%@%$ about margins...why waste the paper." But after a little reflection, and looking over my some of my notebooks, I seem to be split on the topic.

 

If I'm writing (that is to say composing fiction, essays, what have you), where I or someone else will be going over it and making notes or editing, not only do I respect the margins, but I even give them a little breathing room.

 

However, when I'm taking notes in a meeting, scribbling to-do lists, or writing something that no one else will likely see I use the margins as extra columns. Words are packed and scattered across the page as if I were creating movie props for a lunatic's manifesto.

 

I never realized that I did this.

[Runnin_Ute]

"mostly" respect. Although sometimes one or the other is narrower than the standard 1"/~25 mm depending on the day and the paper.

 

If it has a margin line, the left line will be honored. On the right, mostly. If none (such as in my A4 Black n' Red notebook) I use a left margin - but it might be considerably narrow than 1 inch. I don't go to the edge of the paper on the left and rarely on the right do I go all the way to the edge.

 

That is of course, my General rule. And every rule has an exception.

[Paddler]

I don't stop writing at "the margin" because none of the paper in my possession has a right margin. All of my ruled paper has a left margin, but no right margin. So I stop where the next word won't fit. I refuse to hyphenate a word to conform to a margin or the paper's end.

 

In grade school, we were always taught to rule a half-inch margin on both edges of the paper and write within those boundaries. The tablets we used did not come with a left margin already in place. When we were allowed to use regular filler paper, we used its pre-ruled left margin and allowed the right side float unjustified.

[Ethereal Winter Wind]

There are right hand margins? I've never seen one before.

 

If there isn't a left hand margin I usually leave a couple of centimetres space on the left hand side and write so that there is equal spacing on either side of the line, but if there is a left hand margin I write right to the edge of the righthand side.

[dunhamsa]

I primarily write to myself: notes, research, drafts, etc. I try to adhere to margins in letters, but often forget to do so in a line or two. That is frustrating (and ugly). I am more relaxed for my personal writing, though even there I find that when I do cross the right-hand margin, it tends to look ugly. Margins add boundaries and proportionality to the written word. I always kick myself when I don't use them for research and drafts, since I know I will go back to make edits and changes. It should be noted, however, that this self-criticism is only in recent years. There were a couple of decades where I was content to cram as much on a page as possible.

 

I think what I am trying to get at, in this analysis of when I don't pay attention to margins, is how my decades of poor discipline now seems to me ugly and unhelpful. It also affects my letter writing when my attention to detail drifts away because of such lack of consistent discipline.

[longweight]

No right hand margins on most of the paper in the UK!

[Bigeddie]

No right hand margins on most of the paper in the UK!

 

I'll vouch for that.

 

There are occasions where I will also ignore the left hand margin too. The vast majority of what I write is draft material that I will amend, cut, chop and change. To this end I write double spaced (every other line), and have many corrections in the lines in between. It's not the most efficient, so I try to use the whole line to compensate a little.

[OakIris]

I remember back in the day when I used a typewriter to write papers for school there was a type of paper called thesis paper (I think - it has been a long time!) that I vaguely remember having margins delineated in red on both sides, and possibly at top and bottom too. Otherwise I have never used paper that has a defined right margin. I certainly "honor" the left margin, but usually write to the end of the line on the right side.

 

What kind of paper do you use that has right margin lines, Inkyfingerz, or are you talking about some "virtual" line past which you do not write but others do?

 

Holly

[zuku]

I use every available square milimeter of my paper. I used to even write over it one more time (up side of the paper down), with a different color, using the spaces between the lines. It can be read, but i had to discontinue that practice due to the headaches. I started to use an extra-fine pen and small letter case with small space between lines, but this would not make the headcahes go away.

Now i write with medium stub, normal letter case and normal line space. I leave no margins. I do not know what are they for. In printed books i think they are for me to write comments. I leave a few letter spaces at the first line of paragraphs. I know what are this spaces for: So you know a paragraph is starting.