Using both sides of the page and similar sins    070

So often school teachers give children duplicated notes and other educational material that has been printed on both sides of the page, and this is to reduce costs, about one cent saved per double page. And disappointingly children often copy this example in their own work. Does it matter? Well if your child is trying for absolute maximum performance it does make a difference. Let’s run through some academic basics.

Printing on both sides of the page breaks concentration as it is difficult to flip back and forth to follow arguments and content. Sometimes the paper may be of poor quality so the print will be difficult to read as the text on the other side bleeds through. But the main problems are twofold. First, the essay or written work cannot be spread out on the table with links joining certain sections inked in or with the content marked up and reorganised in some other way. Second, the work cannot be cut up with scissors, physically rearranged and then taped down in the new configuration. Clearly students should not disadvantage themselves with double page printing or writing.

Very often students present teachers with first drafts of written assignments for comment. Naturally they should be one sided, but they should also be set out in a special way. The left-hand margin should be normal but the right-hand margin should be at least two inches to allow space for comment. There should also be one inch vertical space between paragraphs, and no paragraphs should run on to the next page. Spacing throughout should be single or 1.15, as at this level of writing syntax and grammar rarely need attention. Presenting work in this way allows the teacher to make the most effective contribution to your child’s progress. It also shows a serious approach to the work. And the worst way to present work for teacher comment? Email it. And I might add here that authors presenting manuscripts to publishers and to publishers’ agents are almost invariably requested to provide the text in hard copy, single sided. So learn from the professionals and make it easy for the teacher.

Now one more improvement. When students hand in work invariably they format in a way that is both ugly and more difficult to read. Typically this is because margins are too narrow so that lines are well above 12 words per line. Check this for yourself—published work almost always does not exceed 11 words per line, which makes the text easier to read. Paragraph indenting, vertical spacing between paragraphs, known as leading, can also be adjusted for improvement. If the teacher requests double spaced work then using 1.8 or 1.9 spacing—almost the same— with a 1.35 or 1.3 inch margin makes a surprising difference to the visual appeal of the work. These formatting changes show pride in presentation and make your child’s work more readable. This is one advantage which is both easy and certain although some students do need to be shown how to make these changes on their computer.

Now if the teacher doesn’t specify formatting for computer work then the below table will be useful. It covers the three most popular font sizes: 11 point, 11.5 point and 12 point. Total implementation time of these improvements—and I have timed this—less than one minute.

All content copyright—Mark Thackray—Australian Educational Services