Few reminders for professional or academic writing style of the West.
If you are submitting documents (like graduate school papers, academic papers, professional business documents), there are certain generally expected standards. For example,
- Times New Roman font
- Size 12
- Double Spaced (for academic papers)
- 1″ (2.54cm) margins on ALL sides
The problem is most Chinese writing programs I have seen (including Word and WPS) do not do these methods automatically. I have often had my students complain that their professors marked them down for “formatting” and they aren’t sure why. The problem is, most programs I’ve worked with here do 3cm margins by default. And they “double space” with a special button checked called “snap to grid” that distorts the spacing. I highly recommend checking your document ahead of time before submission. If you fix those two issues, a paper that was supposed to be 8-10 pages is suddenly 6-7 pages. Go to “Page Layout” -> “Margins” and make SURE it’s 2.54. Click the spacing button and look at your “options.” Make sure the “snap to grid” button is NOT checked.
Deceptively Blonde 