Setting Page Limits

from Google

In class the other night, a student expressed frustration about being asked to write a certain number of pages for assignments in other classes. 

 Let me explain.

 

The student argued that by requiring, let’s say 15 pages for a paper, teachers are possibly

1. ignoring (and probably annoying) the student who writes in a succinct manner.
2. inviting (Is encouraging going too far?) students to use large fonts and make irrelevant, repetitive points just to meet the requirement.

I’m sure I mumbled something in support of the student’s views because I don’t believe in required page numbers.

Yet, even as I write this, I cringe a little because every piece I’ve been paid to write had a page or word count that I had to follow. 

That’s not the point in my class though.

In my class I believe I should promote clear thinking/writing that adequately responds to the assignment. I want students to tell me “what they need to say” without worrying about page requirements. However, I do have an idea of how long the average response will probably be to fulfill the requirement.

Enough about me.

I wish I had read the quote below before the student made the point. It sums up things well.

 

“It is the besetting sin of some teachers to assign writing by the number of words or pages they expect a paper to be. These are likely to be teachers who do not make regular use of writing, and resort to it only for such occasional purposes as term papers…. They presume that the more important the paper-- that is, the more it is to count in their gradebooks-- the longer it should be. They pass this confusion of quantity with quality directly along to students, who tot up the words they write, line by line, or stretch out material to fill the expected number of pages, and in the process forfeit their opportunity of writing to learn.” (Writing to Learn by James Howard, p. 14)