How much writing is "one page"?

[Kuovonne]

Occassionally I see references to how much writing a student does in terms of pages.

One page seems to be a common amount of writing, but just how much is this?

 

"One page" could be

- one page of primary ruled paper, writing on every line.

- one page of wide rule paper, writing on every line.

- one page of wide rule paper, writing every other line.

- one page of college rule paper, writing every line.

- one page of college rule paper, writing every other line.

- one page of typed text, double spaced.

 

Obviously these are huge differences in amount of writing.

 

I'm assuming that 'one page' would correspond to the normal

writing paper for the age/grade. So, one page for a first grader

would be one page of primary lined paper. One page for a high

school student would be one typed page, double spaced.

 

But what about wide rule and college rule paper?

My kids sometimes write on every line, and sometimes

write every other line. Compositions tend to be every other

line. Everything else tends to be every line. To complicate matters

even more, one kid has very big handwriting and the other has

small handwriting. Even if both write 'one page, college ruled, double spaced',

one kid is writing more than the other.

 

If I'm trying to have a meaningful conversation with someone else

about a volume of writing and I say my kids write "one page,"

is there a standard assumption of single spaced vs. double spaced?

In one case, the reader might think that my kid writes twice

as much as she does. In another case, the reader might think that

my kid writes half of what she does.

 

BTW, I know to teach my kids where they are at. If I think that xxx amount of

writing per day is right for my kid, I'll have her write xxx amount per day,

even if others do something different. However, I'm still curious.

[marbel]

About 250 words, I think.  One typed page, double-spaced.

[abba12]

One page is a nice term because it scales for age. It means one page of age-appropriate writing. 

 

For my 1st grader that means 1 pages of primary ruled, large line paper in an A5 exercise book (I don't know the US paper scale... the half-size ones, like pieces of letter paper folded in half and made into a book.) Ends up being, perhaps, 30 or so words.

I don't know how it works in the US but we have a large primary rule and a small primary rule, so grade 3 would be 1 page of the small one, maybe 60 words.

For a 6th grader it would mean 1 page from a wide ruled  A5 exercise book (again, the half-size type), maybe 120-150 words?

For a 9th grader it would mean 1 page from a full A4 (letter)  notebook, either wide or college depending on student I suppose, 250-350 I think. 

 

IME wide ruled is single spaced, college ruled is double spaced, so both pages end up with about the same words.

Edited February 24, 2016 by abba12