if you need to write a good bit of text either in an e-mail or scrolling text on a website...how do?

Question

if you need to write a good bit of text either in an e-mail or scrolling text on a website...how do you determine how much "white space" is needed to make reading this material easier on your reader?

Answer 1

How much white space you provide depends somewhat on the nature of the material. If it's a detailed narrative that your reader is going to read straight through, break it up into paragraphs of perhaps six to ten sentences. Each paragraph should be long enough to develop a specific point, and short enough to let the reader absorb its idea before diving into the next. Too many short paragraphs impedes the flow. Very long paragraphs look forbidding, and are harder to read.

On the other hand, if it's information that your reader is likely to scan through to find the bit that interests him, you can break it into shorter chunks.

On a web page, you should also keep the width to a reasonable size (say, 500 - 750 pixels) and allow some margins on the sides.