4 ms·

> when I was in high school I had an English teacher who required Times New Roman for a paper. I got marked off Isn't this... stupid?

koshersalt 4y ago
Usually it’s meant to prevent kids from changing fonts to make a shorter paper fit the page length requirements.
- darkwater 4y ago
  Ok, got it! Then it's actually clever and basically prevents what I was doing as a 7th grade back in the 80's, increasing my handwriting size to fit less words in the same space when writing essays...
jayshua 4y ago
Usually it's done so that the teacher can tell how long the paper is without counting words. Times New Roman at x pt with 1 inch margins fits a well known average number of words per page. The assignment will usually be "write x number of pages on..." Using a larger font size or a font that renders larger at the same font size means you can write less content in the same space.
- mock-possum 4y ago
  … but you don’t need to count the physical printed pages, you can just look at the .doc file? Let the robot do the word count for you, it doesn’t make sense to not take advantage of the same tools the author is using to create the document.
  - jayshua 4y ago
    Most teachers I know vastly prefer to grade on paper rather than digitally. Easier to just circle sections and write comments with a pen than deal with the review features in a document editor. I suppose they could print them out themselves? Or require submission in both digital and paper? But why bother when you can just have the students submit in paper.
    - dfinninger 4y ago
      Anecdotally, most teachers I know prefer digital. Papers never get lost, fewer trees, less to carry, and (of course) https://www.turnitin.com https://www.turnitin.com
      - mistercheph 4y ago
        Spoken like a true salesman!
    - mock-possum 4y ago
      I mean I actually agree, it’s way easier to markup a sheet of paper (unless you’ve got a computer setup you’re comfortable with for the task) - but in that case they can print their own copies, and use their own word processors to count the student’s words. It’s crazy to make up all these extra hoops for students to jump through just because teachers can’t figure their shit out technologically, like it’s a running joke how far out of their way instructors will go to avoid the easily accessible technological solution for some processes.
  - vxNsr 4y ago
    Turnitin.com and digital submission in general are relatively new, I was in high school 10-15 years ago and no teacher would have accepted a digital submission. Now I believe they would refuse anything but digital.
    - mixmastamyk 4y ago
      Our school is captured by google and schoology, so their dossier is already populated before adulthood.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
bee_rider 4y ago
It seems pretty stupid. You could excuse not having adapted to, say, AI-assisted tools yet. The industry has to figure out best methods, then it has to trickle out so the younger instructors know about, and then it has to be propagated out to everybody, standardized, etc. But word processors that could ignore fonts and provide word counts were pretty old tech by 2010! If you haven’t adapted your teaching to something that’s been widespread for decades… that seems like a willful ignorance.
Dalewyn 4y ago
Fundamentally? No. Sure, it might seem stupid over something trivial as schoolwork, but consider the same situation widely exists in the real world. You won't say it's stupid when you need to send business documents and there's money on the line if there are incompatibility issues. Suddenly Windows, Office, and Adobe make a ton of practical, industrial sense.
oasisbob 4y ago
I don't think so, maybe just outdated. ca 2000 when I was in HS, it was clear that the font & format limits were to also help get students used to submitting printed standardized manuscripts later in academia. But also to save the teachers from all of the same empty formatting flourishes which people do in the corporate world too. Colored text, unrestrained use of bold, fonts which are harder to read ... 12 pt, double spaced, Times New Roman was honestly a standard which started to be taught as early as elementary school. In uni, strict formatting rules weren't uncommon either! At my school, within the humanities, formatting was strict to get students used to APA/Chicago and more persnickety guides. Even in Analytical chemistry, charts made in Excel were banned outright because the prof wanted to push students onto tools capable of generating publication-ready graphics.

koshersalt 4y ago

Usually it’s meant to prevent kids from changing fonts to make a shorter paper fit the page length requirements.

darkwater 4y ago
Ok, got it! Then it's actually clever and basically prevents what I was doing as a 7th grade back in the 80's, increasing my handwriting size to fit less words in the same space when writing essays...

jayshua 4y ago

Usually it's done so that the teacher can tell how long the paper is without counting words. Times New Roman at x pt with 1 inch margins fits a well known average number of words per page. The assignment will usually be "write x number of pages on..." Using a larger font size or a font that renders larger at the same font size means you can write less content in the same space.

mock-possum 4y ago
… but you don’t need to count the physical printed pages, you can just look at the .doc file? Let the robot do the word count for you, it doesn’t make sense to not take advantage of the same tools the author is using to create the document.
- jayshua 4y ago
  Most teachers I know vastly prefer to grade on paper rather than digitally. Easier to just circle sections and write comments with a pen than deal with the review features in a document editor. I suppose they could print them out themselves? Or require submission in both digital and paper? But why bother when you can just have the students submit in paper.
  - dfinninger 4y ago
    Anecdotally, most teachers I know prefer digital. Papers never get lost, fewer trees, less to carry, and (of course) https://www.turnitin.com https://www.turnitin.com
    - mistercheph 4y ago
      Spoken like a true salesman!
  - mock-possum 4y ago
    I mean I actually agree, it’s way easier to markup a sheet of paper (unless you’ve got a computer setup you’re comfortable with for the task) - but in that case they can print their own copies, and use their own word processors to count the student’s words. It’s crazy to make up all these extra hoops for students to jump through just because teachers can’t figure their shit out technologically, like it’s a running joke how far out of their way instructors will go to avoid the easily accessible technological solution for some processes.
- vxNsr 4y ago
  Turnitin.com and digital submission in general are relatively new, I was in high school 10-15 years ago and no teacher would have accepted a digital submission. Now I believe they would refuse anything but digital.
  - mixmastamyk 4y ago
    Our school is captured by google and schoology, so their dossier is already populated before adulthood.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

bee_rider 4y ago

It seems pretty stupid. You could excuse not having adapted to, say, AI-assisted tools yet. The industry has to figure out best methods, then it has to trickle out so the younger instructors know about, and then it has to be propagated out to everybody, standardized, etc. But word processors that could ignore fonts and provide word counts were pretty old tech by 2010! If you haven’t adapted your teaching to something that’s been widespread for decades… that seems like a willful ignorance.

Dalewyn 4y ago

Fundamentally? No. Sure, it might seem stupid over something trivial as schoolwork, but consider the same situation widely exists in the real world. You won't say it's stupid when you need to send business documents and there's money on the line if there are incompatibility issues. Suddenly Windows, Office, and Adobe make a ton of practical, industrial sense.

oasisbob 4y ago

I don't think so, maybe just outdated. ca 2000 when I was in HS, it was clear that the font & format limits were to also help get students used to submitting printed standardized manuscripts later in academia. But also to save the teachers from all of the same empty formatting flourishes which people do in the corporate world too. Colored text, unrestrained use of bold, fonts which are harder to read ... 12 pt, double spaced, Times New Roman was honestly a standard which started to be taught as early as elementary school. In uni, strict formatting rules weren't uncommon either! At my school, within the humanities, formatting was strict to get students used to APA/Chicago and more persnickety guides. Even in Analytical chemistry, charts made in Excel were banned outright because the prof wanted to push students onto tools capable of generating publication-ready graphics.