sheet of/piece paper

[Mad-ox]

hi,

I want to give to my students an examination paper. How do I have to say before the exam: take a sheet of paper or take a piece of paper?


thank you before hand,

Madox

[Soup]

Both work. "Sheet" refers to one piece of paper; "Paper" can be either one sheet or many sheets, as in an essay.

You could also say, take one exam (paper); take an exam booklet, if the exam is bound like a book.

___________
Correction
I want to give to my students an examination paper. What do I (have to) say before the exam, take a sheet of paper or take a piece of paper?

[Naamplao]

Originally Posted by Mad-ox

hi,

I want to give to my students an examination paper. How do I have to say before the exam: take a sheet of paper or take a piece of paper?


thank you before hand,

Madox

It is not clear from what you are saying whether the paper you are referring to is the Examination paper or some blank paper to do some temporary calculations on prior to entering the result onto the Exam.

So to have the student take an examination paper from say a table in the room you might say something like...

Students.....Please take a copy of the examination paper from the pile on the front desk. You may also take a sheet of blank paper to use for temporary calculations and attach it to the examination paper to show your work.

Refer to the paper as sheets of paper. A piece of paper could just be a scrap of paper torn from a complete sheet.

[Ouisch]

Both are correct, but I've always found it's better to say "Please take out a sheet of paper," because if you say "piece" there's always one comedian in class who will produce a tiny little scrap of paper no bigger than a fingernail and then feign innoncenced: "Well, you didn't specify how big of a piece...."