1Hi Liz. How do you feel about starting university here?
2A little bit nervous, but I'm confident I can handle it.
3This orientation program seems like it will help us a lot.
4Sure. I'm looking at the timetable here myself.
5It seems that there are choices available.
6I can see.
7So, what are you going to do Monday afternoon?
8In the morning we all have the opening lecture,
9but it looks like we have a choice later that day, as you said.
10Well, the 'Careers Lecture' might be helpful,
11but I am interested in the 'Uni Tour'.
12It's probably too early to be thinking of careers now, anyway,
13and I want to know what's what at this new university, so I'm doing the tour.
14Alright. I'll come along with you.
15Might learn something interesting.
16After all, we haven't seen much of this place yet,
17and we will be spending four years here.
18Tuesday is another full day, too.
19In the afternoon there's a lecture about study skills,
20but that morning offers another choice.
21'Library Tour' or 'Student Union Induction'.
22What do you think?
23I think the student union is very important,
24but we can go there any time, right,
25so we should take advantage of the library tour while it's being offered.
26Maybe the week after, you and I can go to the student union.
27Library it is, then.
28Now, Wednesday has a free session in the morning,
29but after lunch there's a choice between visiting the computer lab,
30or attending a lecture on our legal rights.
31Well, law and rights are important,
32but computers are the basis of everything these days,
33so I'm going to the computer lab.
34Don't you think knowing our legal rights is equally, if not more, important?
35We live in a very litigious and complex society now.
36Sure, but it's something we can pick up later,
37so let's leave that one out.
38Okay.
39Let me see the timetable.
40Thursday is a free day, and the week winds up with some celebrations on Friday afternoon.
41It looks like a fun choice, too.
42There's either a BBQ on the main lawn, or the dance.
43I never pass up the chance to eat something. What about you?
44If I can get a free meal, I'll take it any day,
45and I'm not good at dancing anyway.
46Well, that's that decided. Right?
47Right!
48Guess what Liz?
49There's another interesting thing in this orientation booklet,
50and it looks important - about a 'style guide'.
51What's that?
52Take a look yourself.
53It seems to be a set of rules regarding how to present written work -
54essays, and that sort of thing - to the lecturers.
55They want a uniform style of presentation.
56I can see. So, everything we hand in must have a header and a footer.
57A what?
58A header and a footer.
59The footer is at the bottom of the page, and the header is at the very top.
60That's why they call it a 'header', you know,
61that little bit of writing giving details about the work.
62And they also want the word count.
63Why do they need that?
64I guess because the lecturers will specify the number of words they want for their assignment,
65and they want to be sure students follow this.
66And even the heading on the page has to be a specific dimension.
6716 points, and bold print, and underlined.
68And subheadings are 14 points, and the font has to be Arial for everything.
69Yes, the main text is Arial, too, as you said, and the size is 12 points,
70with the header and footer being slightly smaller, at 10 points each.
71Well, it seems logical.
72The size of everything is in proportion to its importance,
73but why do they need the spacing of the main text to be one and a half?
74The header and footer are different.
75They're only single-spaced.
76Probably to allow the teacher to insert comments, or corrections,
77or just to make it all more readable, I suppose.
78And we need wide margins on the left, right, top, and bottom,
79probably for the same reason.
80Lots of space to allow the addition of comments.
81That's a bit scary, actually.
82It seems to assume we will be making mistakes.
83And look what they want in the header and footer.
84The header has the name of the work.
85Not the name of the teacher?
86No, the work, but surely the teacher's name must go somewhere.
87Ah, here it is. It goes in the footer.
88Okay, I'd say this is all logical.
89If a page is lost, say, falls to the floor,
90then with all this information, it can always be traced back to the teacher involved.
91Right - as you say, all very logical.