Hello everyone:

Today, I want to share with you some of my own personal pet peeves when it comes to students’ writing.

First, they use huge margins and as much blank space as possible, so that your paper appears to be 20 pages when it is really only 5 pages. I mean, the instructor will never notice, right? He or she never really reads the whole thing anyway, right? Next, make the first few pages look full and then add margins that are five or six inches for the rest of the document and you will get a great grade, right?  Finally, compliment the instructor as you turn in the paper and he or she will be so flattered that you will get an A. Wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong.

Huge spaces really tick your instructor off because is makes the professor think that:

A. You think the teacher is stupid

B. You are really lazy

C. You are just trying to get by

D. All of the above

The answer to previous comment is, you guessed it, D. What will this do to your grade? Well, if I have asked for a 20-page paper and you give me five pages, then you get a 25 out of 100, if the paper is otherwise perfect (it rarely is). If you do the math here, you just failed the assignment, major league.

What are you thoughts on this? Because of the huge amounts of spam I get, I only respond to comments that use my name or specifically point out things I have said in a given post. I would love to hear from you!

Best,

Dr. Sheri