Page Layout ⇒ Indentation on the first paragraph of a section

[choward]

This isn't strictly speaking a technical question about LaTeX code, but it is related. I'm a student programmer working for a university computer department. I'm using LaTeX to write a funding proposal for new equipment. When I showed the draft of the proposal to my supervisor, she noticed that the first paragraph of new sections were not indented - only the paragraphs following them.

Neither of us have a ton of experience with either scientific papers or very formal business papers. Is it good form to indent all the paragraphs in a section but not the first? It looks good to me but I thought somebody here with more writing experience might have an opinion.

[gmedina]

Most of the mathematics books that I own are written in English, and in some of them the first line after a section unit is indented, and in some others it is not.

I only have one expert source in this regard: in his book "The Elements of Typrographic Style" (Second Edition), Robert Bringhurst writes (Section 2.3 Blocks & Paragraphs):

2.3.1 Set opening paragraphs flush left.

The function of a paragraph indent is to mark a pause, setting
the paragraph apart from what precedes it. If a paragraph is
preceded by a title or subhead, the indent is superfluous and
can therefore be omitted, as it is here.

2.3.2 In continuous text, mark all paragraphs after the first with
an indent of at least one en.

As you see, the recomendation is to omit the indent after a title or subhead, but Bringhurst uses "can", so it's not a mandatory rule, and other typographists might think differently.