Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/16710
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

It's not related to academic vs non-academic styles, but a mere matter of proper typography and cost-effectiveness.

[Butterick's Practical Typography](http://practicaltypography.com/first-line-indents.html) offers the generally accepted rule:

> A first-line in­dent is the most com­mon way to sig­nal the start of a new para­graph. The other com­mon way is with space be­tween para­graphs.
> 
> First-line in­dents and space between paragraphs have the same re­la­tion­ship as belts and sus­penders. You only need one to get the job done. Us­ing both is a mis­take. If you use a first-line in­dent on a para­graph, don’t use space be­tween. And vice versa.

As to cost-effectiveness, space between paragraphs is most common on the web because it's the easy to do using CSS. First-line indent is most common in print because you save paper. Books and journals get printed; that's probably all there is to it IMHO.

Original score: 8