Professor's requirements revisited

Shift Option K · Mar 11, 2014

As I use Pages and they only want us to use Word which most of us have but not me, I spoke to the professors and that ban has been lifted to become "Use Microsoft Word or a word processing program of your choice that exports Word documents." however, Times New Roman is still a required font.

What makes universities and colleges (and apparently some high schools) require use of that font? Mac and Windows have it but what about those Linux users out there? They don't have that font, apparently, and using alternatives won't play nice with professors and teachers (read from another forum).

mobilehaathi · Mar 11, 2014

What about standardization don't you seem to get? For whatever reason, Times New Roman has been the default on word processors for a while, and that's likely the reason behind it being required.

monokakata · Mar 11, 2014

If you google linux times new roman you'll have an answer. Yes, the Linux people can have TNR.

Where are you going to college, anyway?

And · Mar 12, 2014

Shift Option K said:
What makes universities and colleges (and apparently some high schools) require use of that font?

This way there's no risk that someone might use comic sans.

Scepticalscribe · Mar 12, 2014

What is the problem with using Times New Roman? It is clear, legible, and a relatively attractive industry default.

Seriously, if this is what your Professor requires, this is what has been decided is the standard everyone else has conformed to.

maflynn · Mar 12, 2014

Shift Option K said:
What makes universities and colleges (and apparently some high schools) require use of that font?

Standardization, otherwise people will be using all sorts of arcane and hard to read fonts. Keep everything the same and so the professors can then focus on the content

heehee · Mar 12, 2014

Would you want to read something like this?

yg17 · Mar 12, 2014

heehee said:
Would you want to read something like this?

My eyes, they burn!

ideal.dreams · Mar 12, 2014

Another thread on this same topic?. Why do you feel the need to question something that's been the standard for likely decades? Do you also question why the sky is blue when you wake up in the morning? Your last thread received several good reasons on why Times New Roman is the standard in academic assignments.

ucfgrad93 · Mar 12, 2014

maflynn said:
Standardization, otherwise people will be using all sorts of arcane and hard to read fonts. Keep everything the same and so the professors can then focus on the content

This seems like a very plausible explanation to me.

carjakester · Mar 12, 2014

my professor says that after she has been grading paper after paper it is nice to have the same exact setup, instead of having to adjust from paper to paper.

Richdmoore · Mar 12, 2014

I would hate to have a paper marked down because pages (or another app) messed up the formatting during the export.

It sucks, but I would bite the bullet and just use word for Mac, at least for school stuff.

yg17 · Mar 12, 2014

Richdmoore said:
I would hate to have a paper marked down because pages (or another app) messed up the formatting during the export.

If a student doesn't have Office on their computer, it would take them 10 minutes to pop into a computer lab on campus, open up the exported doc in Word, and make sure the formatting is correct, and fix it if need be, before submitting it.

Rossatron · Mar 12, 2014

Scepticalscribe said:
What is the problem with using Times New Roman? It is clear, legible, and a relatively attractive industry default.

Seriously, if this is what your Professor requires, this is what has been decided is the standard everyone else has conformed to.

true, but i do wish ariel/tahoma/halvetica were allowed too. they are more pleasant to the eye - especially on long texts.

mobilehaathi · Mar 12, 2014

yg17 said:
If a student doesn't have Office on their computer, it would take them 10 minutes to pop into a computer lab on campus, open up the exported doc in Word, and make sure the formatting is correct, and fix it if need be, before submitting it.

When I was in undergrad, I could go to the computer store on campus and get the previous version of word for Mac for $10. I think at some point it went down to $5.

yg17 · Mar 12, 2014

Rossatron said:
true, but i do wish ariel/tahoma/halvetica were allowed too. they are more pleasant to the eye - especially on long texts.

I prefer sans-serif fonts too - TBH, the font Scepticalscribe uses in his posts annoys the hell out of me so I don't even read them. But since TNR or another serif font has been the default in word processors for a long time (I think Word recently changed that) and nearly every book, newspaper and magazine uses serif fonts, I guess there's been some studies that show it's easier to read.

Scepticalscribe · Mar 12, 2014

Rossatron said:
true, but i do wish ariel/tahoma/halvetica were allowed too. they are more pleasant to the eye - especially on long texts.

Actually, personally, I cannot stand Ariel; I think it is too narrow, and physically, it strains my eyes to have to read it and I dislike it intensely.

My personal favourites are Garamond (which is exceptionally easy to read, especially in a hard copy, although it translates less well to a screen), Arno Pro, and Times New Roman.

yg17 said:
I prefer sans-serif fonts too - TBH, the font Scepticalscribe uses in his posts annoys the hell out of me so I don't even read them. But since TNR or another serif font has been the default in word processors for a long time (I think Word recently changed that) and nearly every book, newspaper and magazine uses serif fonts, I guess there's been some studies that show it's easier to read.

Well, each to their own.

Shrink · Mar 12, 2014

mobilehaathi said:
When I was in undergrad, I could go to the computer store on campus and get the previous version of word for Mac for $10. I think at some point it went down to $5.

When I was an undergrad, I'd hire a scribe to chisel the stone tablets for me. It was just a couple of drachmas per tablet.

Scepticalscribe · Mar 12, 2014

Shrink said:
When I was an undergrad, I'd hire a scribe to chisel the stone tablets for me. It was just a couple of drachmas per tablet.

What sort of stone did you use in your tablets? I am interested purely as a matter of idle (but fascinating) information gathering, of course.

Hard work, but immensely satisfying, for the scribe(an alternative career beckons, should I ever tire of my current occupation.)

mobilehaathi · Mar 12, 2014

Shrink said:
When I was an undergrad, I'd hire a scribe to chisel the stone tablets for me. It was just a couple of drachmas per tablet.

Oh, dude, and here I thought you had used clay!

Lugging notes to class must have required a beast of burden or two...

SandboxGeneral · Mar 12, 2014

I'm not a fan of TNR, but if I were in class and the professor required it for my papers, I'd follow the instructions and use it. Otherwise, it bothers my eyes to try reading it.

The default fonts in MS Outlook, Calibri, are nice along with whatever font MacRumors uses and the default font used in Mail.app on OS X are all preferred fonts for me.

malman89 · Mar 12, 2014

mobilehaathi said:
When I was in undergrad, I could go to the computer store on campus and get the previous version of word for Mac for $10. I think at some point it went down to $5.

This - or more likely rates of $20-75 instead of $100+ for a license - vary by school and aren't standard college to college. My university offered no discount.

OP, get over it. A standard is a standard for a reason. Use it or face potential point deductions.

mobilehaathi · Mar 12, 2014

malman89 said:
This - or more likely rates of $20-75 instead of $100+ for a license - vary by school and aren't standard college to college. My university offered no discount.

OP, get over it. A standard is a standard for a reason. Use it or face potential point deductions.

Yes, I understand that. Other universities I've been at have varied, but I felt I'd mention it to the OP in hopes they might at least check.

Oh well.

MathBunny123 · Mar 12, 2014

From personal experience the eye gets adjusted to particular fonts better, especially when programming your eyes sort of mould to the indentation style, etc.

So when reading material it would pickup easier if everything was similar, rather than adjusting to it.

Plus it prevents unfair marking due to bias font choice / readability (if that makes sense).

davidinva · Mar 12, 2014

maflynn said:
Standardization, otherwise people will be using all sorts of arcane and hard to read fonts. Keep everything the same and so the professors can then focus on the content

As a former college instructor, I remember the days in the 1990s when wide choice of fonts became available, and some of what the students turned in was of "ransom note" quality.

Professor's requirements revisited

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