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spelling stuff

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  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Nobody has told us how to do anything here, we just do whatever.
    On my last assignment, my friend and I handed it in a day early, only for the lecturer to tell some other people that same day that we were expected to use headings, which we hadn't. No marks for us then!

    I usually use Times New Roman size 12 with 1.5 line spacing and justify both sides.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Kermit wrote: »
    It differs from university to university, but the standard for creating new paragraphs in word processed work is to create a new line rather than an indent. That is the standard way of doing it, its certainly the way I was taught to do it all the way through a Law and Politics degree at Durham, and it is the way every single solicitor's letter I have ever come across has been typed. It is our house style, and if it was bad typigraphically we wouldn't do it, nor would any other law firm.

    The only work that should be justified centrally is printed newspaper/magazine work, and that is because usually they are printed in two or three columns and it helps to define the column. One-column work should be justified to the left.

    Have to say though I'm no expert most scientific journals and papers I've glanced at have been justified on both ends.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Kermit wrote: »
    It differs from university to university, but the standard for creating new paragraphs in word processed work is to create a new line rather than an indent. That is the standard way of doing it, its certainly the way I was taught to do it all the way through a Law and Politics degree at Durham, and it is the way every single solicitor's letter I have ever come across has been typed. It is our house style, and if it was bad typigraphically we wouldn't do it, nor would any other law firm.

    The only work that should be justified centrally is printed newspaper/magazine work, and that is because usually they are printed in two or three columns and it helps to define the column. One-column work should be justified to the left.

    Well, it might differ from university to university, but the MLA is probably the guiding authority on academic style, which I would say is the standard for academic essays.

    They say to indent paragraphs (half an inch), but not to justify the right side in case word breaks and hyphens confuse the reader (not sure I agree with this one....). www.mla.org

    And letters are a totally different style from essays, so I'm not suprised that you were taught to space NPs. Although when I did look for style guidelines for law essays, the guidance notes were almost the same as the MLA guidelines.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The thing I don't like about the justifying left and right is that in order to make it neat at the edges it changes the size of the space between each word within a line. That means some lines the words look really spaced out and on others they looked packed together. That's why I stopped using it and just justified left, keeping the spacing the same throughout.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I think you can read much faster if the spaces between words are the same.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Usually I make it Tahoma 12, justify it then have 1.5 line spacing. Paragraphs I leave a space and then start a new line. I think if I have to use Times New Roman (argh) for uni then I'll type it all in Tahoma then the last second before I print it..Change it to TNR.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Rachael wrote: »
    I think if I have to use Times New Roman (argh) for uni then I'll type it all in Tahoma then the last second before I print it..Change it to TNR.

    I think I might have to do that. It would just be painful typing in Times New Roman :(.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Yeah I know. TNR looks so ugly. Apparently childrens organisations HAVE to use Comic Sans...Think my mum told me
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Rachael wrote: »
    Yeah I know. TNR looks so ugly. Apparently childrens organisations HAVE to use Comic Sans...Think my mum told me
    Whaaaaaaaaaaat?! That's ridiculous! It's such an ugly font :|.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Franki wrote: »
    Whaaaaaaaaaaat?! That's ridiculous! It's such an ugly font :|.

    Yeah. I think it's something about it being a lot easier to read for children because the letters are kinda spaced out.. Found a page http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/3W/fontJR.htm
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    There's no need for them to use it in letters sent hoome for parents/guardians though, and simply no excuse! lol
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    At my university there was no standard set of rules for layout but most lecturers had their own preferences and would tell us when setting the work.
  • littlemissylittlemissy Posts: 9,972 Supreme Poster
    Rachael wrote: »
    Yeah. I think it's something about it being a lot easier to read for children because the letters are kinda spaced out.. Found a page http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/3W/fontJR.htm

    They don't *have* to.

    I have a font which is much better than comic sans, which I use. It is much kinder on the eyes too. And I only use it for the younger ones. The older ones get verdana.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    They don't *have* to.

    I have a font which is much better than comic sans, which I use. It is much kinder on the eyes too. And I only use it for the younger ones. The older ones get verdana.
    Which font is that? Tbh I don't understand how they could possibly say Comic Sans was the easiest to read out of those. They were all crap :|.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    What is wrong with Times New Roman? :eek2:


    ETA and Comic Sans MS just makes whoever is using it look stupid and amatuerish, or as if they are 13 years old. It's a horrible font and it shouldn't be inflicted on children.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    What is wrong with Times New Roman? :eek2:

    I just really dislike serif fonts. REALLY REALLY. And Times New Roman is the worst. I just don't think it looks as neat, imo. It's not that I refuse to use it completely, if I have to then I have to, but I will avoid it at all costs. Everyone has preferences :p.
  • smitherzsmitherz Posts: 968 Part of The Mix Family
    Tahoma for me :yes:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Franki wrote: »
    I just really dislike serif fonts. REALLY REALLY. And Times New Roman is the worst. I just don't think it looks as neat, imo. It's not that I refuse to use it completely, if I have to then I have to, but I will avoid it at all costs. Everyone has preferences :p.
    I've just had a looky at Tahoma in word and I think TNR is better :p (preferences I know!) I dislike how the size 12 of Tahoma is the same size as 14 in TNR, and without the serifs the letter stick together almost and aren't spaced equally. Arial is even worse, it's all chunky and blocky.

    The worst font is Courier New, which is unfortunately the standard for transcribing conversation analysis, which I have to read a lot :(

    Edit - Comic Sans MS is THE worst font, but Courier New is still bad. Not quite as bad as Comic Sans, as it doesn't make my eyes burn.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I don't use Tahoma size 12 anyway, I use it size 10 :p. Because I don't like it when my writing looks big :o.
  • Indrid ColdIndrid Cold Posts: 16,688 Skive's The Limit
    Courier new is excellent -for writing code.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I usually use Trebuchet MS, size 10/12 depending on my mood, 1.5 line spacing, fully justified, 1 line break for paragraphs.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Courier new is excellent -for writing code.
    Yeah it's excellent for transcriptions too, because of the equal spacing. Still not the most attractive font though!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Yeah it's excellent for transcriptions too, because of the equal spacing. Still not the most attractive font though!

    There's many fonts that are (i think it's called monospaced?), look around, some are nicer than others.

    OCR A extended always looked computery to me :p but you can get normal characters just typeset like that too.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I don't use it myself, because I don't transcribe. We have to analyse other people's transcriptions, being just lowly undergrads. Anyway, it's a recognised standard and you HAVE to use it to transcribe CA, so I couldn't use another one anyway :)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    CA? *stupid* :D

    I think typography is really quite interesting. Not fancy photoshop ones, but normal ones. It can make a big difference, like going from times new roman to calibri (or verdana) is lovely for typed and printed documents. Makes them look really professional and modern.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Conversation Analysis (what I was rattling on about a bit further up the page!)

    I still think TNR looks the best, if I write something in it and then change the font a few times I can never settle on one which looks as good as TNR. It's just neat and does the job.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I love Courier New because it makes me feel like a secret agent.

    Mission: to eat another babybel then for a big giant poo.

    Time: nearish 4'o clock
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I couldn't give a fuck about fonts if I'm writing an essay or something, so I'll just use Times New Roman.

    However I like Stencil and I'm using it as the title name for my Magazine in Media Studies. I also like and am using Hattenschweiler (sp?)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I like sans serif fonts for body text, though a serif for headings isn't so bad. Think they do look slightly outdated now though.

    [in response to khss]

    And Rachael - why do I find it so shocking for a girl to be talking about pooing? :eek:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I'm with KHSS on the TNR issue. It's neat, well-spaced, tidy, looks professional. I looked at the other fonts today on Word, and they all look far too blocky, bold....

    I know the Courier New is the regular font for transcription, esp. in CA and TIR (talk-in-interaction), but I think it more important to have a non-proportional font which is easier to make overlaps in than in a proportional font like TNR. My spoken quotes for my thesis are all in TNR, rather than Courier, so I think there's a bit of leeway.
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