When I review my students’ contract-drafting assignments, I’ll flag instances of what I think of as word-processing debris: superfluous spaces or tabs that follow a given block of text. They look sloppy.
You wouldn’t see them in a printed copy of a document, and you wouldn’t see them if you haven’t selected “Show” in Word’s “Show/Hide” option. (What, you haven’t selected “Show”?) But anyone who has selected “Show” would see them if they elected to read your draft online.
And even if no one else sees it, word-processing debris nevertheless hints at indiscipline, and as such is anathema to the contract drafter’s Bushido.
Then again, maybe I need to ease up a little …
