latex funky formatting

Ai52487963

For some reason, compiling my code gives me this wacky formatting error (see attached).

The pages seem to alternate between too far to the left on page 1, too far to the right on page 2, left on page 3, right on page 4 and so on. Even my references are skewed to the right.

Is there some sort of formatting preamble I'm missing here?


Edit: my code at the beginning looks like so:

\documentclass[11pt,twoside,a4paper,draft]{article}
\begin{document}

\title{Dark Matter versus Modified Newtonian Dynamics}
\author{Scott V. Burger\\Western Washington University\\\texttt{<removed email address>}}
\date{June 6, 2008}
\maketitle

\begin{abstract}

Attached Thumbnails

 

alphysicist

Hi Ai52487963,

That's not a formatting error. The twoside option is used, for example, for binding double sided pages together in a book. The side of each page with the larger margin is the side that is toward the spine of the book. If you leave out the twoside option, the effect you're describing does not occur.

D H

Correct, except that the larger margin is the side away from the spine (unless of course you override the oddsidemargin and evensidemargin). It's kind of hard for authors to write margin notes (or for readers to jot notes down in the margins) if the larger margin is toward the spine. There are some other nifty things you get with the twoside option. Even and odd pages can have different headers, for example.

alphysicist

Hi D H,

Thanks for the correction about the default behavior of twoside. I guess my mind was in the gutter.

Ai52487963

Thanks so much! I thought the twoside option was just so that printers would see it and print it accordingly.