Because a Word or similar text-processing file may not yield the desired results when opened on a different computer, you must submit your homeworks as a pdf file, which preserves formatting and can embed any non-standard fonts that you use.

You should be able to create a pdf file from your word processing program.

• In Microsoft Word 2010 for Windows, use Save As... and select the PDF option. This may require an add-on for Word 2007. You can also install third-party software to enable this function in other programs.
• This function is a part of the Mac operating system and can be accessed from any program. Use Print... and select Save as PDF on the PDF drop-down menu in the dialog box that appears.
• PDF printing is also included as part of OpenOffice.

Special characters

An accurate homework assignment will often require the use of precise phonetic symbols to transcribe and transliterate the items under discussion. You must therefore learn to insert the right characters in your documents.

A simple, though somewhat cumbersome, approach is simply to cut and paste the necessary characters from the homework pdf or the online lecture notes from that week, or from the list of phonetic symbols or Unicode characters.

You can also access special characters in Windows using the Character Map, and in Mac using the Character Viewer.

For greater convenience, you can install or activate keyboard layouts that include keystrokes for many of the more common special characters. For example, š is option-s in the US Extended keyboard layout on a Mac. In Windows, a somewhat similar layout is called US International.