11.6.3 JUSTIFICATION
Justification refers to the alignment of the text. In most legal documents, text is aligned along the left side of the page, or “left justified.” Some information, like page numbers in tables, is “right justified,” or aligned along the right side of the page.
Many word processing programs allow writers to use “full justification.” Full-justified text is aligned evenly along the left and the right sides of the page. Sometimes, using full justification allows the writer to fit more words on the page because a program will compress some words to make them fit into a line. Unfortunately, the variable spaces in full-justified text interfere with readability. Although full-justified text may look more attractive from a distance, it is also more difficult to read.28Most word processing programs have flush left, ragged right as their default justification. Do not be tempted to use full justification to save space or to “clean up” a ragged right edge. True, full justification seems to make the document look nicer. That nice look, however, comes at a cost: Most current word processing programs achieve full justification by varying the spaces between the words. These varying spaces impose costs on the reader’s brain: The reader must adjust to each new width. The adjustment, though subconscious, becomes annoying, and slows the pace of reading.