The hardest challenge in editing is re-reading your draft with “fresh eyes.” When you edit, you bring back to your draft all the baggage that went into the initial composition—thoughts about what you wrote, what you planned to write, what you wanted to write, what you imagined you wrote, and so on. How can you spot and fix weaknesses if you don’t come to your text like a first-time reader?

Among the simple tricks I advise is changing the font and margins. Simple, to be sure. But it works for me and others, and I was never sure why. Research reported by Benedict Carey in the New York Times provides evidence that a change in fonts does make us read differently. Font size makes no difference (a surprise). But font style does.

Researchers tested university students on subject matter presented in an unfamiliar and difficult-to-read typeface. The students scored almost 14 percentage points higher than students presented with the material in a familiar typeface.

The students who studied material in 12-point Comic Sans MS or 12-point Bodoni MT earned, on average, 86.5 percent on the exam versus 72.8 percent for the control group studying in the Arial font.

In another experiment, the researchers found the same thing happened with students from an Ohio public school on tests in English, history, and science.

The researchers’ conclusion? Unusual and difficult typefaces force readers to think more deeply.

Use this lesson to your advantage. What’s the best type for “forcing” more attentive re-reading? In my work, I often try Britannic Bold, and if I’m overly familiar with my text, I go for a script like Mistral. But maybe the researchers were onto something—maybe it’s time to try Comic Sans.

[Revised January 2020. Originally published May 2, 2011]