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October 28, 2009, 2:00 pm
What’s on your mind?
How’s your semester going?
Do you need advice or feedback about something related to life and work in higher ed?
Do you have advice or feedback to share about something related to life and work in higher ed?
What would you like to see covered at ProfHacker?
Let us hear from you in the comments!
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11 Responses to Open Thread Wednesday!
Kaitlin - October 29, 2009 at 3:25 pm
I assign page length, as I think it’s easier to figure out. But I do set a lot of specifications: normal margins (default is fine), Arial 10 or Times 12 font. Courier New gets marked down. Images do not count towards the page length, and writing two lines on the final page does not count as meeting the page requirement. I fear that if I assigned a word count, I’d get a lot of empty filler words just to fill up the count.
At Oxford, everything is assigned by word count, and usually anything plus or minus 10% is considered acceptable. You actually have to apply for permission to exceed the word limit!
William Patrick Wend - October 29, 2009 at 5:38 pm
I mark down for incorrect fonts as well (hence the question about other fonts being default in Office 2007).
Nels P. Highberg - October 28, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Thank you, Julie! Green Monster looks perfect, and they’ll take the two lamps we almost put in the trash.
Julie Meloni - October 28, 2009 at 8:06 pm
This is good info: 10 Tips for Donating a Computer. Also, for straight-up green eCycling, find a local company via Earth 911. Most vendors, such as Green Monster e-Cycling, will handle the data wipe if that’s the way you want to go.
Julie Meloni - October 28, 2009 at 9:07 pm
Wow, I totally forgot about that other stuff I teach, too. Yes, absolutely, things like memos and what not that have specific genre conventions, that’s the wildcard.
Nels P. Highberg - October 28, 2009 at 7:47 pm
I would like to know what suggestions people have for recycling old computers. We have about five old laptops here between us, and we’d like to remove or erase the hard drives before we get rid of them. How is it best to handle that? And then what should we do with them?
William Patrick Wend - October 28, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Folks: When assigning papers, do you require a page or word count?
Julie Meloni - October 28, 2009 at 8:51 pm
I do a word count range, e.g. 1200-1500 words, 750 – 1000 words, etc. What constitutes a “page” is so….fraught with difficulty, let’s say, even if they follow 12-point Times 1″ margins, etc. I don’t want to spend my time debating if a 2.5 page paper is a “3 page essay” or whatever. So, word count. Since I get the papers electronically I can quickly tell. Also, I don’t particularly care what the word count actually is unless it’s ultra short, or if it’s extra-long and the student hasn’t said “hey, can I write a much longer paper?”
William Patrick Wend - October 28, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Julie, we have a lot of the same policies. My word counts have been 750-1000 and now 1250-1500. I did page counts with my 101′s this semester and they have either barely hit (or not…see your ex about is a 2.5 page paper a “3 page essay”) or really, really gone over (which is fine by me). I also have them submit everything electronically so words are preferred for me.
Now if only I could get them to actually do Times New Roman size 12. As discussed by a few people on Twitter today, Office 2007 does some other font and my students aren’t switching over to TNR as I instruct.
Nels P. Highberg - October 28, 2009 at 9:03 pm
It depends on the genre in which they are writing. When I assign formal reports, I use word count because I want to see how they design the executive summary, table of contents, headings, and the like. An 8000 word report can go from six pages to twelve pages depending on whether they choose to single or double space, and that’s a choice I want to see them make for something like that. For a memo, I’ll go with page length. The structure of a formal memo is pretty tight, so I think page length is easiest. For some assignments, I give neither. I’ll just wait to see if they can get the job done in two pages or five. One of my assignments this semester was to write a letter to parents detailing the university’s policy for handling students ill with H1N1, and I gave no minimum o maximum; they just had to get the job done.
Nels - October 30, 2009 at 1:21 pm
I used to tell my students the biggest font they could use was Courier New 12. In my editing jobs, all of our manuscripts had to be Courier New 12. My partner, who is an attorney, has to submit all documents to the court in Courier New 12. He hates it, but it’s required. Since I don’t use Arial, Helvetica, Times, or Times New Roman in my own writing (I use Georgia), I don’t restrict students. And since I grade digitally, I actually kinda like a sans serif font like Calibria (or whatever the Word 2007 default is called) rather than a serif font like Times New Roman. I leave font open, sometimes, because design is one of the things I grade, and I want them to make font choices. I’ll talk about the kind of ethos their fonts portray.