Treating Billy

Billy, a 14-year-old White male, is an exceptionally good student, particularly in math and science. His parents, however, have been concerned since he was 6 or 7 about his social isolation and lack of affection. During grade school, he constructed a short wave radio and spent most of his free time perfecting its design and listening to foreign stations. He became very interested in following the weather reports of different countries. His most recent interest is satellite photographs of weather conditions around the world. In addition, Billy spends time phoning various weather services and subscribes to several meteorological publications. He reportedly enjoys watching television, preferably by himself. Two friends shared his interest, briefly, in the past, but they soon stopped spending time with Billy due to his obsessive interest in only meteorology. Billy has very little contact with other schoolmates. During the interview, Billy appeared emotionless and polite. Occasionally he expressed irritation over his parents’ attempts to “interfere” in his affairs, though he considered them to be on his side, particularly his mother. Although he expressed no interest in sports, he appeared well coordinated and displayed no peculiarities of movement. He stated that he hoped to work at a weather station when he grew up and reported particular interest in the Antarctic.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.