Double spacing means the amount of space between the individual lines of your paper. When a paper is single-spaced, there is little white space between the typed lines, which indicates there is no room for signs or comments. This is exactly why teachers ask you to double-space. The white space between the lines gives room for editing marks and remarks.

Double spacing is the standard for essay assignments, so if you doubt expectations, you must format your paper with double spacing. Only use a single space if the teacher asks openly for it.

Don’t worry if you’ve typed your paper and now realize that your spacing is wrong. You can change spacing and other kinds of formatting easily and at any time in the writing process. But the way to go about these differences will differ, depending on your word processing program.

Microsoft Word

• Select (highlight) text if you have typed some lines. If not, go to the next step.
• Click on the Page Layout tab.
• Go to the Paragraph section. You will see a tiny arrow in the bottom left corner.
• Click on the arrow to bring up a new window.
• Select the Indents and Spacing tab (it is almost certainly already open).
• Locate the Line spacing menu and a select double from the list. Then select OK.

Pages (Mac)

If you’re using the Pages word processor on a mac, you can double-space your paper usingthese instructions:

• First, highlight the text, if you have typed some lines
• Click on Inspector, which is a blue button on the top right of your window
• When a new window opens, choose the Text tab, which is a large “T.”
• Find the section labeled spacing and type 2 into the box to the right of the slide bar