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This section discusses the importance of typing and printing final drafts well, and it lists some of the most important basic elements of typing final drafts.

When people ask me how important typing is in my composition classes, I say, "It depends." When students are producing first drafts of formal papers or weekly, non-graded writing, I often tell them that they may either type or write neatly by pen, as long as I (and sometimes others) can easily read the results. "But what about final papers?" people sometimes ask me. "What's the big deal with typing?"

"It's not a big deal to me when I teach a course like literature or humanities," I tell people. "However, in composition courses," I tell people, "I do make a big deal of it. That's because it's a big deal to some teachers and in some jobs, and who's going to teach you how to type if not your composition teacher?"

I also like to point out to my composition students that presenting a formal paper to a teacher--let alone to a boss--is like walking into an interview wearing flip-flops and a torn tee shirt. No matter how right you are for the job--no matter how intelligent, caring, or experienced--you're highly unlikely to get it. Similarly, presenting a poorly typed manuscript makes an instructor have difficulty seeing the content inside of the words.

How seriously do teachers and work supervisors take typing? To answer this, I like to tell the story of my friend Bob. Bob was in a graduate program with me, and we did our master's theses at the same time. A master's thesis is what you have to write before you get your master's degree, and it usually takes a semester or two to write it. It usually is thirty, forty, maybe even sixty pages long. That may sound scary to some of you, but what very few people know is that when you are preparing a master's thesis (or a dissertation, which is a book-length paper that must be written for a PhD.), you usually receive a booklet of twenty or thirty pages from the university's office of graduate studies telling you exactly how to type your paper. That's right: twenty or thirty pages of typing instructions. Then, when you finish your paper, you must allow an extra week or two for the office of graduate studies to check it for proper typing. If even one little thing is wrong, you must retype your paper.

Bob and I both decided to write a creative thesis for our English master's degrees. I wrote a forty-page short story--a fictional story. Bob also wrote a fiction story, but his was much longer: it was 500 pages in length, in other words, a novel. Both of us sent our manuscripts to the office of graduate studies to have our manuscripts checked. Mine was okay the first time I sent it in, but the graduate-studies office told Bob that he had a problem with his. His margin on the left side was 1/4" too narrow. And, he was told, he would have to correct it in order to receive his master's degree.

There's something I haven't told you, yet, about the year we graduated. It was 1985, a time when people had just started using personal computers. I had one, and Bob did not. He had typed his entire manuscript, all 500 pages, on a typewriter. Now, with graduation just a few weeks away and all of his other graduate work to finish in that time, the graduate-studies office expected him to retype his entire 500-page manuscript.

Bob always had been a rebel. He was a Vietnam veteran and, like me, an older student, and he once had told me the only reason he was in graduate school was because the army was paying for it. During our two years of graduate school together, he also kept himself fairly busy dating and having a good time, so his grades were not the highest. When the graduate-studies office gave him his ultimatum, he simply refused. He was livid with anger, which I could understand--two years of school down the drain just because of a 1/4" margin--but he absolutely refused to accomodate the graduate-studies office. Bob never did retype his 500-page novel with a wider margin, as far as I know, and he never received his master's degree.

Now, some of you may think that this is just an exception, that most places are a lot more relaxed about their typing requirements. It is true that some teachers are more relaxed than others about how well a manuscript is presented, but most of them do expect it to be typed in an academic style (which I'll explain in a minute). However, some teachers have very strict requirements. Even worse, you may find your teachers expecting you to know how to type in an academic or professional style without telling this to you, and without specifying what such a style looks like. In fact, some teachers may even unconsciously have less respect for a poorly typed manuscript than for a very well typed one. All of this is why you should learn to type well and appropriately as soon as you can. Doing often pays handsomely--in both better grades and more respect at work.

"More respect at work" means your professional life. The story of Bob, above, is repeated millions of times each year in some similar way in the professional world. Work supervisors reject papers because they are improperly typed, businesses look bad and lose work because of poor formatting of business letters and pamphlets, and hundreds of thousands of would-be writers, professional and amateur, find their works rejected because of poor typing. And sometimes, huge amounts of money--and people's jobs--are lost because of relatively minor mistakes of typing. Take the following case as reported in the Minneapolis Star Tribune Jan. 29, 2004, and in other newspapers:

In December, New Hampshire's state drug abuse and prevention program was turned down for a $7 million grant on the sole ground, said the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, that its application was typed with smaller margins than permitted. The federal agency did not give the state an opportunity to correct the formatting, even though the victims of the rejection were not the grant-writers but drug-addicted patients.

--Shepherd, Chuck, "News of the weird," p. E3.

New Hampshire lost 7 million dollars. How many jobs were lost, as a result? This is not to mention the number lives aided or even saved by the money that might have gone to drug-addicted patients but did not.

So good typing does matter. It also is helpful to ask your instructor if she has any specific guidelines, as each academic discipline--and each major business or professional field--often has its own typing requirements. For example, while a 1" margin is a common requirement, the academic disciplines of English literature require scholars to use to use ¾” margins; in the world of popular magazine publication, editors often expect a 1½” on the left and 1" on all other sides. In addition, individual instructors, work supervisors, and workplaces may have their own particular requirements, born of their own needs and experiences. One instructor I know, for example, finds papers much easier to grade if they are stapled. He clearly states this in class several times; then he automatically flunks papers that are paper clipped: a tough instructor. Whether this is unfair is not the point. It is, simply, reality. Most instructors and professional workplaces have some room for flexibility in typing, but most also have their requirements and preferences, spoken and unspoken. It is helpful to learn what they are ahead of time by asking.

These guidelines are general. Be sure to check with your instructor, first, to see if he or she has additional or slightly different requirements.

1. Add Page Numbers: Click on “Insert” and then “Page Numbers.” Then choose the location for the page number on each page: ask your instructor, but most instructors prefer page numbers on the far right (top or bottom) or in the middle (top or bottom). Instructors almost never want the page number on the left-hand side, as it is harder to see when a paper is stapled or paper clipped. Whether you have a number on the first page is your choice (but no number often is better).

2. Choose 1” Margins: Click on “File” and then “Page Setup.” Set all four margins for “1.”

3. For Checking Grammar, Turn On Formal (Full) Grammar Check (in Word 2000+):

(a) Click on “Tools,” “Options,” and “Spelling & Grammar.” Generally, you do not need to worry about checking the boxes—they usually are set correctly.
(b) Then change “Writing style” to “Grammar & Style.” (In earlier versions of Word, this is called “Formal.”)
(c) If you wish, you may also go into “Settings” and, under “Require,” make the first three blanks say “always,” “inside,” and “2.” You also may then check every box under “Grammar” and “Style.”
(d) Finally, you may need to click on “Recheck Document.”

It's not all that big a deal to me when I teach a content course--a literature or humanities course. However, when I teach a composition course, I do make a big deal of it because so many other teachers, academic programs, and workplaces do.

(a) Have you not started typing, yet? If so, then simply set steps "5"-"8," below, before you begin typing.

(b) Have you already typed some or all of your manuscript? If so, the directions below require that you first mark your entire manuscript in black. Do this to make the changes below. Marking your manuscript in black is like marking a word, sentence, or paragraph in black. Simply place your cursor at the beginning of your manuscript, click and hold down on the right-click part of your mouse, and move your cursor to the end of the manuscript. When you reach the end, lift your finger from the right-click part of the mouse. Your manuscript's words now should all be in black. Then proceed to one or more of the steps below.

5. Choose a Font (the style and size of your type): The first step is to mark your entire manuscript with your mouse (see “4” above—but ignore this step if you are just starting your manuscript). Then go to the font window above (or click on “Format,” then “Font”) and choose a typical academic font: Times New Roman, CG Times, and Garamond are acceptable. (Avoid large or plain ones.) The typical academic font size is "12."

6. Choose Double Spacing: The first step is to mark your entire manuscript with your mouse (see “4” above—but ignore this step if you are just starting your manuscript). Then click on “Format,” “Paragraph,” and “Indents and Spacing.” Change “Line spacing” to “Double.”

7. Choose ½” Indentation of Paragraph Beginnings: The first step is to mark your entire manuscript with your mouse (see “4” above—but ignore this step if you are just starting your manuscript). Then click on “Format,” “Paragraph,” and “Indents and Spacing.” Change “Special” to “First line.” Then change “By” to “0.5.”

8. Make All Bottom Margins Exactly the Same: The first step is to mark your entire manuscript with your mouse (see “4” above—but ignore this step if you are just starting your manuscript). Then click on “Format,” “Paragraph,” and “Line and Page Breaks.” Uncheck all the “Pagination” boxes.

The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author.The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Minnesota.

The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author.
The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Minnesota.