Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!sarah!cs.albany.edu!hammond
From: hammond@cs.albany.edu (William F Hammond)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.applications
Subject: Re: When will new WordPerfect be available?
Summary: Do students get better grades for DTP papers?
Message-ID: <290@karp.albany.edu>
Date: 17 Jan 91 23:08:45 GMT
References: <1991Jan16.024225.12117@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu>
  <17666@cbmvax.commodore.com> <91016.180239AXN100@psuvm.psu.edu>
Reply-To: hammond@leah.albany.edu.UUCP (William F Hammond)
Organization: Dept of Math & Stat, SUNYA, Albany, NY
Lines: 40

In article <91016.180239AXN100@psuvm.psu.edu> AXN100@psuvm.psu.edu writes:
>>        Actually, there was a study reported in Science News (I think, or the
>>WSJ) where students using Mac's tended to produce more-polished papers that
>>were somewhat inferior on content to ones produced on other machines.  The
> . . .
>    I can tell you from experience, that a good report produced with a type-
> writer, or a simple wordprocessor does not get graded as well as a paper with
> fonts, boldface, and such.  My first year of college, I turned in reports
> that were good but at most got B-'s.  But one day I turned in a report,
> no better than any others I turned in before, I received an A.  Profs, and
> teachers grade this way.    ...

This one would be more likely to look askance at a student paper that is
awash with DTP features and wonder whether the student is trying to use the
DTP features to cover up inadequacies of content.  In the final analysis in
order to be fair I should try very hard to focus on content alone.  This is
not to say that issues of *neatness* and *format* are not important.  But to
the extent that they are important an ordinary typewriter or, for that matter,
a simple editor, provided it is sufficiently flexible to permit the user to
insert ANSI sequences for such things as underlining and boldface (see
Appendix D to the manual "Introduction to the A2000" or the corresponding
appendix entitled "Printer Escape Codes" in the A500 manual), is perfectly
adequate.

>       ...               I've turned in reports with very little content
> but that look good and have gotten better grades.  When I started looking
> through corporate reports, I found the same to be true.  The moral of this
> FLASH BEATS SUBSTANCE.
> . . .

There are individuals and environments where this is true to a certain
extent, but in the long run substance usually triumphs over form.  (One
cannot, however, ignore form altogether, because so doing can risk short
term disaster.)

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William F. Hammond                   Dept. of Mathematics & Statistics
518-442-4625                         SUNYA, Albany, NY 12222
hammond@leah.albany.edu              wfh58@albnyvms.bitnet
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