From sixth grade, like many other students, I was taught how the physicality of a printed essay should look. The essay should be in size 12 font, Times New Roman, double spaced, 1in. margins, with last name and page number in right hand corner. What most students know as MLA format. Sounds boring right? Well, because it is. This is something you are taught and are told, "If you don't do it like this you will be marked down!" SO not only are we worried about what our essay says, but how the essay looks. This is engraved in every students mind that we don't think we have a choice to change the physicality of an essay.

  So why is my essay written in MLA format? Because I am SCARED to do anything else!!! I cannot justify why I used it because if I had the choice I wouldn't have. My essay would have been written to look like you were reading a sugar packet. This is because my essay was on sugar substitutes and would have captured someones eye to read. I believe that teachers have us use this format so that every kid is equal. Everyone would have to write the same amount and could not cheat by writing less because they used a bigger font. It also makes the essay look clean cut and professional. It is also a way of expressing ones thoughts not through looks but through their writing.
  I have to agree completely with Will. This type of format is part of a "societal norm" and if we stray away from that norm one becomes an outcast. He is says it well that our society fixates colors with feelings and that when you read a serious paper one should not see what the other person is feeling, but should see it through the authors figurative language. Although I understand this I think it would be nice to have papers that do not follow this norm and let the author express their writings in different ways.