Semantic Line Breaks

Summary: When writing text with a compatible markup language, add a line break after each substantial unit of thought. https://sembr.org

*Semantic Line Breaks describe a set of conventions for using insensitive vertical whitespace to structure prose along semantic boundaries.

Many lightweight markup languages, including Markdown, reStructuredText, and AsciiDoc, join consecutive lines with a space.*

Adding a line break after each sentence makes it easier to understand the shape and structure of the source text:

We can further clarify the source text by adding a line break after the clause “with reason and conscience”. This helps to distinguish between the “and” used as a coordinating conjunction between “reason and conscience” and the “and” used as a subordinating conjunction with the clause “and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood”:

Despite these changes made to the source, the final rendered output remains the same

Try reading the text out loud, as if you were speaking to an audience. Anywhere that you pause for emphasis or to take a breath is usually a good candidate for a semantic line break.

The Semantic Line Breaks specification is authored by Mattt.

In the process of developing this document, I came across this excellent blog post by Brandon Rhodes that includes extensive research about the origin of this technique. (2012-04-03) Semantic Linefeeds