(edit title) Any teachers here or tourist office employees? Options

[Lingonberry]

If you are a teacher or perhaps work somewhere like a tourist office, which font do you use for your classroom notices or posters? Can you settle an argument? I have always used Comic Sans because it is supposed to be easier to read. Does anyone know a source of evidence for using a particular font in education please? If you are a teacher, when the inspectors have been in, have they ever told you which font should be used?

[jim747]

Not a teacher or anything, but, when I was at college back home everyone had to use the same type script, Ariel.

Not sure if it was just the college's own choice or if it was more widespread.


Roch, any ideas?

[roch]

morning Jim :-)

Well when I was teaching kids I used comic sans for displays and making worksheets, because it was easy to read AND it made the worksheets look a little bit less formal and fun. It is a good font to use for kids in that regard.

For anything formal, ie letters, assessments or any writing that I do for or to adults, I use either ariel (which I prefer) or times new roman (which my swedish teacher told me everything must be in font size 12).

So it all depends on what the context is. If you could be a little more specific then possibly we might be able to help you more. :-)

(In regards to inspections every friggin school I worked at in London was inspected and there was never any comment about fonts used.
We either used ariel or times now roman or comic sans for the majority of all written work.)


ps jim How did the washing situation go :-)

[jim747]

Haha, it's tomorrow, i'll let you know, there's nothing like a sunday jihad in the tvättstuga!!

[Bender B Rodriquez]

I have always used Comic Sans because it is supposed to be easier to read.

Comic sans is also a good font to use if you want to appear mentally challenged. Unless you are making a poster for 3 year olds, or are a Nigerian spammer alt. retarded, I advice you to not use that font. :evil:

[DidiE]

I worked for a long time for the US Centers for Disease Control, putting out health propaganda was part of my job. We had quite a bit of research that shows that sans serif fonts- Arial, Comic, etc.- are good for catching attention, but really are difficult to read when used for large chunks of text. Eyes need those little serifs- the hooks on the ends of the letters- to help readers mark places and differentiate between words. We don't usually read letter at a time. It's more like we do word recognition by the total patterns that individual letters make. That is why spelling...one letter at a time... is a lot more challenging for people than reading. Serif fonts help with the pattern recognition. It always drives me batty when Comic or Arial are used for beginning readers- I think it's really unfair for new readers to be expected to compensate for those kiddy fonts, when a simple switch to Times New Roman would help them. So if the inspectors said why don't you switch to TNR, it's something to consider.

Edited to add- when you draft, you use TNR, but when it's posted, you got some kind of Arial in every post here, too. Too bad TL doesn't make TNR standard for overall reading comprehension.

I bet you are sorry now you asked- you hit upon a topic that brings out some strong feelings. Sorry for the bombast.

[roch]

Actually I will have to disagree with you on the use of comic sans for kids in regard to classroom posters and worksheets.
But it relates solely to my own personal experiences from children in the NZ and UK education system and the way that reading and writing is taught there.

In comic sans the letters are just like the way we teach kids to form letters when printing. Both in NZ and the UK. I cannot comment for any other country. The letter a in particular as the a in comic sans is written just like you would when writing it. This reason as well makes it a popular choice in the younger classroom. Because writing and reading are linked together.

Small kids DON'T read large chunks of text, they are learning the sounds, blends etc high frequency words...
It is not until the kids are a little older that joining and handwriting are introduced.
I have taught many children, some who have come to the UK from other countries that really struggle with the whole joined concept. But when the word is printed they then can read it, recognise sounds, blends etc. A minority never ever get the hang of joining letters.
But all children learn in different ways. And for many children it actually really doesn't matter which font is used - serif or sans serif.

http://www.alexpoole.info/academic/literaturereview.html

In fact I could go on for pages about classroom practice and experience but its Sunday morning and I really don't have the motivation.

As for ariel or times new roman, I think really its a personal choice. I personally find ariel more easy to read.
I would never use comic sans for anything outside of the classroom.

[Streja]

In Sweden, at unis and in schools we use Times New Roman. I have studied in Uppsala, at Högskolan Trollhättan-Uddevalla and at Göteborg uni and it has always been Times New Roman.
My professors at Trollhättan-Uddevalla were English and American.

[*Guest*]

I'm not a teacher, but I've worked as a journalist and writer for several years now, and almost everything I have done has always been 12 point font, in either Times New Roman or Courier New (the typeface of most typewriters). This is also according to APA Style and The Chicago Manual of Style.

I would have to agree with the comment made about Comic Sans being childish. I would definitely not use that font for any formal letters, or just anything in general directed to anyone but children—as you would look unprofessional, IMHO.

[Princess P]

According to The Plain English Campaign the clearest fonts are Arial and Helvetica. Which ties in with my teaching degree and the degree I've just done. Both unis marked down work if it was produced in anything other than Arial.

I also spent 15 years in the financial services and everything we produced had to be Arial too.

http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/designguide.pdf

[roch]

So I guess it's really where you come from :-) Different countries have different expectations, varying from uni to uni, company to company, job to job.

I do agree with streja though that here in Sweden Times New Roman is the way to go.
Because we all know that if you try and change something in Sweden that is expected then it will end in tears at bedtime!

Agreeing with Princess P, the UK (from again my own personal experience and that of mates) is that arial is the preferred font.

I guess America from the sounds of it has different expectations, but hey wouldn't it be bloody boring if every country thought the same anyway?

[Miss Kitten]

I've taught English in three countries to students of all ages and skill-levels, and I've always used the Times New Roman font. I think it's the best font ever.

In fact, I love it so much that when I receive documents written in anything other than my beloved Times New Roman, I have a very strong impulse to change it. I probably have done so once or twice.

[Lingonberry]

Thanks to you all for your comments. Seems it will have to be Arial where I am - that's what the marketing department want, but I know that some of the parents reading our material have literacy problems themselves, so I thought the font for children would be better. I've now been told that Comic Sans should only be used for people with dyslexia. What do you think of that? I thought there were other ways to help dyslexic readers like using different coloured paper. Is anyone an expert on dyslexia?

[Ezpen The Caveman]

We uses Times New Roman or Arial and the size is 12 points. Sometimes we also use Wingdings...