[Ektar]

So I'm writing a paper right now, and, as always, am employing my many skills of shortcutting my way through it. Specifically, I just added a superfluous, yet not unwelcome, 3 word phrase that put the last word of the paragraph onto the next line, so that the beginning of the next paragraph goes to yet the next line. Obviously, I have a required page count.

I was wondering if anyone had some brilliant ones they used to do or still practice. Some more of my favorites off the top of my head are:


When the margins are not definitively specified, shrinking (or leaving microsoft word default rather than changing it to proper 1 inch) or enlarging (on the rare occasion you need more room) the margins to make the paper look longer/shorter than it actually is.

Along those same lines, changing the font of the entire paper so that it looks longer or shorter. Times New Roman and Arial are often universally accepted, but arial is larger than times new roman. The other way, I change to "Garamond" when I want it to appear shorter, since it is a normal-looking font but FAR smaller than times new roman.

Along the same lines as the trick in the first paragraph, enlarging the font size of a punctuation point, or maybe a small word like "a" or "the" in order to pop the paragraph down onto the next line when it's JUST about there but you just CAN'T think of another word.

Moving off papers, my favorite humanities class trick is to read a particular section of a massive reading, or in whatever way become very informed on what would be one or two questions the teacher may ask, raising my hand and demolishing it. You're basically off the hook for the rest of the day there.