[texhax] Thesis layout regulations

[Bernice Barnett]

Dan Hatton wrote:
> On Tue, 2 Jun 2009, Karl Ove Hufthammer wrote:
>
>> Why is singlesided printing used?
>
> One suggestion which may or may not be autobiographical ;-):
>
>     Double-sided printer is geographically distant
> +   thesis has so many pages that turning sheets over manually to
>            get double-sided output from a single-sided printer would
>        really eat a _lot_ of time.
I believe that unusual thesis printing rules originated from the idea 
that someone might actually read the thesis. In that case the reader 
might want to cover the pages with notes and leaving lots of white space 
was helpful. It's the same idea with copies for refereeing when we used 
to do it on paper.

With the huge increase in the yearly number of thesis, the resulting 
lowering of quality, the use of digital distribution methods, and the 
fact that most thesis are not read by anyone other than the committee 
(and many members avoid reading where possible) the rules now seem 
outdated. But so are a lot of traditions both within academia and without.

-- 
Jeff Barnett