Teachers - can you easily recognize which font a paper used? Does it impact how you view the paper?

Yes I can tell; the impact depends. If you’re given a choice, I imagine the teacher doesn’t particularly care.

Personally I prefer the way Ariel looks, so I’d rather read that.

The point of page numbers is to give students a guideline for how much information to include. If it’s the same information in different fonts that determines the different page numbers, I don’t think the font matters at all.

Not a teacher.

I can differentiate the fonts on sight (Verdana looks huge next to Ariel), but if your professor permits you to type in something non-Times New Roman, then I don’t think it will matter if you use a slightly different font. Most of my professors require Times New Roman so that students won’t deviate in this manner (that and English is such an MLA-happy major.)

@muppetish I’ve been very surprised that none of my teachers has specified fonts very much. The strictest I’ve gotten is “Times New Roman or similar font, in 10 or 12 point”.

If I was going to ask for a specific font, and sometimes students do ask me about presentation, I would say something fairly standard like Times New Roman or Ariel and in 10 or 12 font, 1.5 or double spacing. Good sized margins and black.

I have had students submit in weird fonts and colours and it gives me the shits. If you have a pile of papers to mark, you want it to be easy to read and plenty of room to write. These days I mark mostly electronically so I am reading on a screen but I still just want it to look clean and easy to read. Anything that makes my life harder is not appreciated and I want to be able to focus on what you are saying, not to be irritated because the font is weird and perhaps hard to read.

We give word lengths rather than ask for a specific number of pages too.

Yes (but then one of the classes I teach is typography).

I’m fine with standard serif or san-serif fonts on a paper. No display (specialty) fonts and no script fonts. Also, no type-styles (italic, bold, thin, demi) unless it’s to emphasize a particular word.

Ideally, I’d like the font choice to support the theme of the paper. But that’s certainly subjective and I wouldn’t grade down on it.

And, for the love of Pete…no Comic Sans.

@cprevite See, that I don’t get – supporting the theme of the paper. Outside of some seriously special fonts, I have no idea how Helvetica would seem more appropriate than Ariel or Times New Roman.

My secret is that I expand the general font by the slightest (seemingly unnoticeable) amount, and it really adds more in the longrun.
@cprevite I agree. I’m a student, but I hate comic sans…my 6th grade teacher made us use it in every typing assignment.

I discovered Batang in high school. It made my papers sooo much longer. But now I don’t see it on computers anymore!

@MyNewtBoobs: It’s commonly accepted that serif fonts (due to their origin in stone cutting and historical usage), “feel” older, more serious, antique even. Conversely, San-serif fonts are seen as more modern, cleaner, sleek even.

Therefore, you might choose one or the other depending on the content, tone and/or intent of your paper. Of course, there’s exceptions to my descriptions above and it is (as I said) subjective. Which is why I wouldn’t grade down on it – but it might cause me to add extra points if done well.