What the heck is right justified?

The Lonely One · Oct 20, 2008

What does it mean when a publisher asks submissions not to be "right justified"? I've never heard of this, and I've certainly never taken the extra effort to do it, but is it something the word processor does automatically? Is there something I need to "undo" here? I'm having the first-time submission jitters. I don't want to screw it up.

Thanks.

veinglory · Oct 20, 2008

If you look at the right side of the page the ends of the line wil either be jagged, or they will all end at the same place just like on the left side making a smooth rectangle. The smooth rectangle is justified, you want it to be ragged.

The Lonely One · Oct 20, 2008

veinglory said:
If you look at the right side of the page the ends of the line with either be jagged, or they will all end at the same place just like on the left side making a smooth rectangle. The smooth rectangle is justified, you want it to be ragged.

Thanks! So in other words, what Word Perfect does normally (without me telling it otherwise) is what they're asking for?

e.g. - if a word doesn't fit at the end of the line it'll move down a line, rather than trying to make them all fit equally spaced?

veinglory · Oct 20, 2008

Yes, this is the normal default setting.

Ms Hollands · Oct 20, 2008

The following is an example of the different types of justification. Right-justified seems a bit odd. In order below:

............Left............................................centre.............................right........................................full

Yeshanu · Oct 20, 2008

I'm going to play around a bit for you to demonstrate three of the four different alignments you can put your text in. This paragraph here is left-justified, or aligned. You can see that the left side of the text lines up, whilst the right side of the text is ragged. That's the default setting on most word processors.

Now I'm going to change the alignment.

This paragraph is centered on the page. When it wraps around, it will justify to center, and both the left and right edges of the text will be jagged. I most often use this one when writing poetry.

I'll change it again.

This paragraph of text is right justified. I'd use this only when creating headings and footers in a word processing document. Other than that, I can't think of anywhere else I'd use it.

The fourth option is fully justified, meaning the text on both the left and the right sides are straight edges. Word processing programs manage this feat by varying the spaces between letters and words just a little bit, and it tends to look somewhat odd, especially in larger blocks of text on full sheets. It's mostly used in newspapers and other formats that use columns instead of full pages for print. It's not one you'd use for a normal manuscript.

If you want to play with it yourself a little, you can go into your word processing program. At the top, in the tool bar, you'll see a series of icons that look like lines. Skim your mouse over them, and you'll see that they're the ones that align the text the way you want. Select a block of text, then play with the alignment to see how it looks.

Have fun!

ETA: Dang! Spent so long making up this post that April beat me to it! Well, now you have two examples.

katiemac · Oct 20, 2008

When they say not right justified, they're most likely referring to "full" justified like in April's post. Right looks too funny for most people to consider subbing, but "full"--like a newspaper column--is fairly common. As you can see it sometimes causes large spaces between words. It "stretches" the line to fit, regardless of the formatting it causes. A lot of people don't like it.

veinglory · Oct 20, 2008

Yes, the would be saying to not right justify--to left justify only.

The Lonely One · Oct 20, 2008

Thanks!

Cybernaught · Oct 20, 2008

I right justify screenplays. Not sure if that's acceptable or not, but I've always done it.

dpaterso · Oct 20, 2008

Cybernaught said:
I right justify screenplays. Not sure if that's acceptable or not, but I've always done it.

So, how many right-justified screenplays have you sold?

Or maybe I should just ask, has any prodco or manager or agent ever objected to this?

Just curious, no hassle intended.

-Derek

Cybernaught · Oct 20, 2008

dpaterso said:
So, how many right-justified screenplays have you sold?

Or maybe I should just ask, has any prodco or manager or agent ever objected to this?

Just curious, no hassle intended.

-Derek

Don't know, I write screenplays for fun. Haven't tried selling any. I make all my movies myself, but I haven't rejected myself yet because of my justification.

I should clarify, I use the right-most justification, AKA block, because it makes my dialogue look prettier to me. If I ever intend to sell any I'll look into it more, but thank you for your concern.

Yeshanu · Oct 20, 2008

Cybernaught said:
Don't know, I write screenplays for fun. Haven't tried selling any. I make all my movies myself, but I haven't rejected myself yet because of my justification.

If you write for yourself alone, you can do what you want, even down to using fancy fonts and pink lettering on purple paper.

Once you're ready to venture out in the world (if you ever decide to do so, as there's nothing wrong with having fun for its own sake) "select all" and a few other keystrokes will work magic to turn your ms into a saleable format.

Danalynn · Oct 22, 2008

Cybernaught said:
Don't know, I write screenplays for fun. Haven't tried selling any. I make all my movies myself, but I haven't rejected myself yet because of my justification.

Okay, that is too funny!

:ROFL:

What the heck is right justified?

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