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How many spaces are you supposed to leave after each period . in a typed document?

When I took typing class in high school, the answer was definitely two. But somewhere in the transition to word processing, the answer became “one.”

In the same way, I now teach my students not to underline the titles of their documents. After all, with a word processor, there are so many other, and more effective, ways to make the title stand out.

In fact, there are so many ways to design text on a document, that my students have become almost too creative, and I find myself forcing my students to apply standardized designs simply to save me the hassle of reading pink text on a pea green background with my buggy eyes at 11 p.m.!

But, according to a recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, “Teaching Document Design, Nor Formatting Requirements,” I’m doing it wrong. Like many teachers, I am doing my students a disservice if I dictate the font, font size, margins, titles, etc. for my students to use when they turn in a paper.  How will they ever develop the skills of design, or apply their own creativity, if we stifle all their attempts to personalize the design of the page.

As a matter of fact, I’ve been learning from my own students the power that they have to use their creativity for effective communication in paper and digital reports. While I used to require black and white, with restricted fonts, I noticed that now and then a student would turn in a  paper that used colors, fonts and graphics so effectively that I appreciated their efforts. Now I allow, and often encourage the use of various design elements, as long as the report product remains

easy to read.

True, I may still get some pink text or pea green backgrounds, but if I take the time to show my students the impact of text design, they will hopefully learn to avoid unreadable fonts and colors. Then they will be able to select appropriate and creative designs even when they do not receive direction from me (or anyone else!)

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