If the entire document is in the same typeface then it doesn't matter what typeface the writer uses because the reader can simply substitute their own favourite.
In fact why should an essay even specify the font? All that should be necessary is plain text. The reader can then read it in an application that uses a specific typeface and reflows the text to fit the margins, even Windows Notepad can do that. A slightly more sophisticated application could also double space as necessary.
I'm glad I didn't have any of this crap while I was at school and uni. My final year experimental report (electron spin resonance, 1977) was about a 100 pages of single spaced typewritten text, hand drawn charts, and figures. I suspect that it only a little more time to produce on our portable typewriter than it would now in a word processor because we were not distracted by irrelevancies.
In fact why should an essay even specify the font? All that should be necessary is plain text. The reader can then read it in an application that uses a specific typeface and reflows the text to fit the margins, even Windows Notepad can do that. A slightly more sophisticated application could also double space as necessary.
I'm glad I didn't have any of this crap while I was at school and uni. My final year experimental report (electron spin resonance, 1977) was about a 100 pages of single spaced typewritten text, hand drawn charts, and figures. I suspect that it only a little more time to produce on our portable typewriter than it would now in a word processor because we were not distracted by irrelevancies.