When teachers say a 1-2 page report...

[justkeepswimming]

In reading many various lesson plans written by other homeschooling (and regular-schooling) teachers and parents I often see assignments listed that say "Write a 1-2 page report," or something along those lines.  When assigning that assignment to my child/student, I am wondering what precise requirements this involves.

 

Is it just 12pt, Times New Roman, 1.5 spaced, "default" margins, single-sided paper? Or... what is the standard?

 

 

[Lori D.]

In reading many various lesson plans written by other homeschooling (and regular-schooling) teachers and parents I often see assignments listed that say "Write a 1-2 page report," or something along those lines.  When assigning that assignment to my child/student, I am wondering what precise requirements this involves.

 

Is it just 12pt, Times New Roman, 1.5 spaced, "default" margins, single-sided paper? Or... what is the standard?

 

 

Most colleges expect MLA (or similar) format, and as a result, a lot of high schools require similar formatting. Is there a syllabus, or a note in the introductory material or teacher manual that specifies what is meant by that? Otherwise, I'd go with the MLA format to just get in the habit for college:

 

- 12 point type in Times or Times New Roman

- double space (2.0 space)

- 1" margins all around

- 1/2" tab indent for paragraph indents (NO additional blank lines between paragraphs)

- print only on single-sides

- name, date, assignment and/or class in upper left corner, all double spaced

- title centered (just the next double space down from the name/date)

- and then body of text (just the next double space down from the title)

- second page and additional pages have the student's last name, then a hyphen, then the page number as a header on each page, in the upper right corner

- if just 1 work is cited for the report, you can add an extra line of blank space after the last sentence, then on the same page, centered, type "Works Cited" and then do the citation in MLA format (or format to match the rest of the paper); if there are multiple works cited, then the "Works Cited" page (formerly called "Bibliography") is a separate page.

 

 

In that format, a "1-2 page" assignment averages out to about approx. 300-500 words -- or 3 to 5 good paragraphs.

[justkeepswimming]

Excellent - that's exactly what I needed to know.  Most of these lesson plans haven't given specifics, but this is probably why - they just assumed one would know that the "standard" MLA format should be used.  I didn't look at it that way because it didn't SAY to use it (my brain is spectacular at building very large walls to block the obvious...).

 

Yep. Yep.  A thousand thanks! Of course it would be the MLA format if nothing else is mentioned! 'doh :blushing:

 

(So happy to have a place where I can ask possible dull-witted questions! haha!))

[nansk]

Thank you for asking (and answering) this. I always wondered about this because I have SWB's audio lectures where she says "Write three one-page papers a week in history, in science and in literature." But I hadn't asked on here because dd is not at that stage yet. Subscribing to this thread for future ref. :)

[justkeepswimming]

Thank you for asking (and answering) this. I always wondered about this because I have SWB's audio lectures where she says "Write three one-page papers a week in history, in science and in literature." But I hadn't asked on here because dd is not at that stage yet. Subscribing to this thread for future ref. :)

 

Yes, writing three one-page papers in the format described above is much less intimidating than writing three one-page papers that are single-spaced and narrow-margined! It really puts so many things into perspective.