[jayshua]

Usually it's done so that the teacher can tell how long the paper is without counting words. Times New Roman at x pt with 1 inch margins fits a well known average number of words per page. The assignment will usually be "write x number of pages on..."

Using a larger font size or a font that renders larger at the same font size means you can write less content in the same space.

[mock-possum]

… but you don’t need to count the physical printed pages, you can just look at the .doc file? Let the robot do the word count for you, it doesn’t make sense to not take advantage of the same tools the author is using to create the document.

[vxNsr]

Turnitin.com and digital submission in general are relatively new, I was in high school 10-15 years ago and no teacher would have accepted a digital submission. Now I believe they would refuse anything but digital.

[jayshua]

Most teachers I know vastly prefer to grade on paper rather than digitally. Easier to just circle sections and write comments with a pen than deal with the review features in a document editor. I suppose they could print them out themselves? Or require submission in both digital and paper? But why bother when you can just have the students submit in paper.