Library of Formatting Examples:Thought Breaks
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The following examples discuss how to recognize and format thought breaks, which are usually shown by extra blank space, horizontal lines, or decorations between paragraphs in a chapter.
To quote from the Formatting Guidelines:
Sometimes two paragraphs are separated to indicate a "thought break." A thought break may take the form of a line of stars, hyphens, or some other character, a plain or floridly decorated horizontal line, a simple decoration, or even just an extra blank line or two. A thought break may represent a change of scene or subject, a lapse in time, or a bit of suspense.
Thought breaks are challenging to detect when the only clue is additional white space: is it a thought break, a new section, a block quote, or just in a book that separated every paragraph with a blank line? Usually, the answer is obvious, but sometimes you will need to make a "judgement call." Also, remember that horizontal lines sometimes are just decorative, not thought breaks. This is particularly true in "front matter" (e.g., title pages) and advertisements.
Before reviewing these examples, make sure you are familiar with the Thought Breaks section of the Formatting Guidelines.
Contents
Click on the "Next" (>>) link above to see the first example or choose an example from the list below.
- 00A: Rows of asterisks
- 02A: Extra white space
- 03A: Horizontal rules
- 04A: Science fiction thought breaks
- 05A: Section or thought break?
- 06A: Project comments providing clarity
- 07A: Context matters