Importance of a Pencil?

[Harrisonized]

Apparently, my Pre-Calc teacher doesn't allow students to use a pen on assignments. I have no idea why.

The reason I use a Pen is because I hate using pencil. There are several reasons for this:
1) It's difficult to see
2) Pencils smear, which destroys the homework after a few day
3) Pencils require lead, which is a pain to reload
4) Good Mechanical Pencils get stolen often
5) IDK why, but when I use a pencil, I make more errors
6) With each error, I must use an eraser and the eraser shreds annoy me

That being said, I only carry a pen in my backpack and sometimes I when I don't finish my homework assignment at home, I must complete it in pen during lunch. This causes her to deduct points every time. I thought a teacher is supposed to teach, and assignments are a signal of how well a student has learned, not how well they fit the teacher's irrelevant templates.

Seriously, I have my homework assignment, done much more complete than what other students have. The content, the work, everything is there. In fact, my graphs are neater than 90% of what the other students hastily draw.

Is there something in the pencil that causes Math teachers to ban the usage of pen? (Last year, I had a Geometry teacher with a similar policy but he didn't care because I actually tried harder than the other students in the class.)

What's so important about a pencil?

[Corn]

You can ERASE!

'Nuff said.

[FelixTM]

I'm the complete opposite. I absolutely hate pens, and I can NOT stand using them. Frickin' hate them.

I've written in purely cursive since second grade. I have a fast, often messy style of cursive that flows much easier when I can use my mechanical pencil. Pens slow me down and only create more mess when I have to scribble things out.

Teachers that require pens on exams piss me off. I hate being forced to use No. 2 pencils, as well, but that's another topic.

[z0mgc00k13]

I'm the complete opposite. I absolutely hate pens, and I can NOT stand using them. Frickin' hate them.

I've written in purely cursive since second grade. I have a fast, often messy style of cursive that flows much easier when I can use my mechanical pencil. Pens slow me down and only create more mess when I have to scribble things out.

Teachers that require pens on exams piss me off. I hate being forced to use No. 2 pencils, as well, but that's another topic.

i noe! its alot of :O

[Harrisonized]

You can ERASE!

'Nuff said.

I don't get it. What's so special about Erasing? Isn't it a better learning experience if you can see your own mistakes? Just cross it out if you make a mistake with a pen. (And as I said, when the eraser's not there, I tend to be more cautious)

I'm the complete opposite. I absolutely hate pens, and I can NOT stand using them. Frickin' hate them.

I've written in purely cursive since second grade. I have a fast, often messy style of cursive that flows much easier when I can use my mechanical pencil. Pens slow me down and only create more mess when I have to scribble things out.

Teachers that require pens on exams piss me off. I hate being forced to use No. 2 pencils, as well, but that's another topic.

I have some nice pen (came in a 4 pack that costed me $12.95) that flows smoothly and looks and dries like printer ink. They actually flow more smoothly than some of the best mechanical pencils I used ($20 ones).

I also hate how they smear when papers written in pencil smear in your backpack. Before I started using pen, I regularly had notes literally illegible (because the pencil smear was so great) by the time I had to turn it in.

[mrcowcow]

I have no idea why teachers would forbid pens. My math teacher has highly suggested that we right our problems on our homework in pen because it organizes the paper by showing where the problems are, and where the work is, which is right underneath. After that, there's another problem in pen, which is, in my opinion, better for people that have horrible handwriting and can not tell where one begins and ends.

Last year, my social studies teachers (two teachers taught one class, each teaching half a week) had a policy that forbid pencil. They claimed it was because students work harder using pen and such; however, that is not the case for some people, as many of us have our preferences.

Personally, I like the use of both of them. I'm a highly organized person, as my papers are all organized neatly in a binder. Also, I write with fairly thin lines, so there isn't all that much graphite on the paper itself. Pens. I absolutely despise ball point pens. I love the ones that have ink that just flows out smoothly instead of a rolling ball.

[Russt]

Pens. I absolutely despise ball point pens. I love the ones that have ink that just flows out smoothly instead of a rolling ball.

Yes. Yes. Omfyes.

Overall though, I rarely use pens for schoolwork. I like being able to erase stuff D:

[Huey]

I brought a couple of pens with me to college, and I haven't even touched them. (Only used them to sign documents.) For lecture classes, I usually whip out a pencil. I find that I can organize my notes better than a pen cause I can erase and make it look neat, etc. I used to smear, but after a while, I stopped smearing my notes (I'm a lefty.).

I guess it's the eraser and how the pencil marks on paper makes me want to use a pencil more than pen. Blue ink ftl.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I love the sound that the pencil produces when you write across clean, fresh paper. Now I sound like some pencil lover. :<

[Blankout]

Are erasable pens bad or something? o-o

[Eriko]

My handwriting with ink isn't even worth pomegranate. The only reason why most math teachers prefer pencil is because erasing makes it looks neat. My math teachers have no preference because they just grade based on completetion most of the time.

Are erasable pens bad or something? o-o

They don't work very efficiently. You'll probably be writing away from the spot you erased just because you can't read anything you put over it.

[Huey]

Are erasable pens bad or something? o-o

They suck.

I press pretty hard when I write with pens/pencils, and if you press too hard with the erasable pens, the imprint of your lettering is still there even after you erase it. :P

Plus it doesn't erase completely.

[Russt]

Are erasable pens bad or something? o-o

They smear worse than graphite, have all the resistance of a bad ballpoint pen, and leave more residue than erased pencil. All the cons, none of the pros.

I used one for almost a semester, and after that I can't really justify any reason why you'd want to.

[FelixTM]

I brought a couple of pens with me to college, and I haven't even touched them. (Only used them to sign documents.) For lecture classes, I usually whip out a pencil. I find that I can organize my notes better than a pen cause I can erase and make it look neat, etc. I used to smear, but after a while, I stopped smearing my notes (I'm a lefty.).

I guess it's the eraser and how the pencil marks on paper makes me want to use a pencil more than pen. Blue ink ftl.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I love the sound that the pencil produces when you write across clean, fresh paper. Now I sound like some pencil lover. :<

I don't have any pens with me here at college. The one professor that requires pens on his exams just lends me one to use on test day. haha

The only mechanical pencils I use are the ones I made back in HS. They're assembled from a kit that the teacher ordered. I got to carve the wood myself using a rotary machine and chisel/gouge, and then glued the barrels inside the pieces. The rest is assembled by mounting the metal pieces in the barrels with a vice. I made three. I used my first one from 9th grade all the way until graduation. I'm on my second one now, and I would never use anything else. Period. Plus, they're gorgeous. <3

[Kevo]

Haha, this is my kind of topic. I'm a total stationary lover. I've spent hundreds of dollars on my collection of pens, pencils, etc. I don't really like the variety provided in North America so I always mass buy stationary whenever I go to Asia.

Anyway, pen is just ugly when you're dealing with calculations in my opinion. Scribbling out mistakes and whiteout are so horrid, same with those so called erasable ink pens that your eyes just want to explode. Pencil will help things look more pleasing to mark and as Claw said you can erase pencil rather well.

However, one of my teachers preferred pen, in case he made a mistake in marking your test and he would see that you did something right. If it was in pencil, there's always the possibility you modified something upon receiving the test back.

Usually I have very neat and girly writing using either Pens and Pencils. I hate cursive though; I find it difficult to make my cursive writing look presentable.

[JoeTang]

Mathematics should not be done in pen unless you have a rough draft to copy from. The sheer innumerable amounts of mistakes would rend the final product nigh unreadable. By using a pen, it leaves for a bad habit. You end up using pens for your math, and when you reach for the calculations that take pages to complete, you waste a lot more time correcting mistakes. Not to mention the pain that is paper bleeding.

[KajitiSouls]

This gets ugly.

Why... why would you use a pen for MATH -_-;;;;

I'm sorry to say this, but my opinion on using pens for math is utter failure. Even on tests.

One can't go about writing huge equation works in the later math courses without making a mistake. They are inevitable. Learn from mistakes, sure, but one'll be a lot less mistake-prone if there's less junk to confuse them.

A teacher out there or a peer will mistake some slashes as a fraction number or a different notation. That will be pretty costly.

Kkz, to address some of the problems you find with pencils, get the kind of pencils that don't smear. Typically, these are the ones that don't use excess graphite breakage when you write on paper, even if you press hard. Some of my math work is still in pristine condition after years of mushing around in files. Also, being a klepto that I am (my MS friends know I jump for dropped stuff, and I even "stole" a Dragon Kreda before Leafre came out xD), I would be just as equally likely to steal a good pen than I would steal a pencil. Also, have multiple pencils handy. At least you can tell when the pencils are about to go bad. I've had fits where pens just all ran dry on me or just got gummed up by crud.


Fun Fact: NASA spent billions of dollars to invent a pressurized, clean-delivering pen that could write in space when the astronauts were trying to take notes.

The Russians used pencils.

[Russt]

Fun Fact: NASA spent billions of dollars to invent a pressurized, clean-delivering pen that could write in space when the astronauts were trying to take notes.

The Russians used pencils.

Lol I love that one

[Dusk]

I'm the complete opposite. I absolutely hate pens, and I can NOT stand using them. Frickin' hate them.

I've written in purely cursive since second grade. I have a fast, often messy style of cursive that flows much easier when I can use my mechanical pencil. Pens slow me down and only create more mess when I have to scribble things out.

Teachers that require pens on exams piss me off. I hate being forced to use No. 2 pencils, as well, but that's another topic.

I like pencils for a different reason. I hate cursive. I learned it in third grade and promptly forgot it. Cursive makes no sense to me. It takes three times as long to write something in cursive, it's usually illegible, and it doesn't look better or anything. Also, the rapid up and down movements when writing w's, u's, m's, n's, i's and a few other letters pisses me off.

I like everything to be clear, and pens get in the way of that. When I write something in pen, I usually screw up and try to fudge what I had written before to look like what I want it to be. Not being able to erase sucks. And pens smear too.

[ZachAttack]

I prefer pens but I use pencils because I lose that kind of stuff very often.

My penwork is way neater than my pencil work. Pens cause me to write a bit slower, that's why. My handmovements are very rapid and errogenous with my pencil so it usually is realllly bad looking.

[JoeTang]

I prefer pens but I use pencils because I lose that kind of stuff very often.

My penwork is way neater than my pencil work. Pens cause me to write a bit slower, that's why. My handmovements are very rapid and errogenous with my pencil so it usually is realllly bad looking.

With a pencil, your hand movements are very sensitive to sexual stimuli?