Have you ever been in a situation where you needed a staple, but you didn’t have a paperclip or a stapler?

This is a frequent problem for my students when submitting work to me. I usually resolve it by having a stapler handy, but staplers jam, run out of staples and disappear.

In that case, I teach my students how to create a paper staple. It attaches multiple pages securely just like a metal staple would.

Without a stapler, most people will turn the corner over of the pages. This method only works if perfect conditions remain. It is very easy for papers to become separated or lost.

A paper stapler prevents this. To make one, you start with that initial fold in the corner of the papers, but you don’t stop there. Once you have that first fold, you make two small tears about the width of a staple apart and right in the middle of that fold. The tears should be about the length of a staple leg.

This creates a “flap” in the folded corner. Bend the flap back and make sure to crease the fold.

Now, the initial fold was towards the front of the paper. After the tears, the flap is folded towards the back of the paper. The result leaves a folded edge that has a missing gap about the size of a stapler. It resembles a carved pumpkin’s smile if the smile only had one tooth. (I’ll add photos later.)

This paper stapler will keep the papers adhered even if the professor drops a huge stack of papers that scatter all over the floor.