College-ruled paper ranks above others

Here at Purdue, nearly all professors are involved in some type of research.

Yet they have not hit a topic of particular importance to us all: The

constant debate of college- ruled vs. wide-ruled notebooks. The guy who invented college-ruled paper should receive a Nobel Prize for "Notebook Excellence." This ruling method is far superior to the all-too-common wide-ruled paper, which is only made for people writing about their doggie with a red Crayola crayon.

I've been asked, "What are the benefits of college-ruled paper?" Amazingly, it has 33, rather than 22, lines on it. This amounts to 32, rather than 21, usable lines per page (who writes on the last line of the page?). I don't know about you, but I HATE writing on the backside of the page, because the wire binding thingy always messes up my already sloppy handwriting, making the last 30% of each line illegible. I don't even bother. This works out to a whopping 2,240 lines per college-ruled notebook, versus a paltry 1,470 lines in wide-ruled format. Assuming you take 11 classes per year, and use two notebooks per class, if the cost of a notebook is 20 cents, over the course of your college career, college-ruled notebooks save you a whopping $8.80! To put this windfall into perspective, that's almost three beers! Or, in other terms, it is almost enough to buy an additional packet of ramen noodles EVERY MONTH you are in school. Also, the environmental effects are staggering. How many acres of forest must be cut down to manufacture an additional 44 notebooks? I'm no forestry major, but I am sure it is a lot of trees, at least two or three. In conclusion, save the rainforests, earn beer or ramen noodles and praise the technological marvel that is the college-ruled notebook!

Adam Pender

Junior, Schools of Engineering

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