Technology has gone through a lot a changes and evolved in the way I write, from quality to quantity. In my eyes, writing is something more comparable to cleaning dishes than an enjoyable activity such as going out with friends. To tell the truth, I despise writing essays, doing assignments and even having to write a long text message or email gets on my nerves. When I have done everything possible before having to sit down with my laptop to write an essay I still manage to keep focusing on how much I have left to write, how much black there is on my word processing tool and the task just becomes more and more draining and frustrating. I really feel like writing a text on a computer is just writing to fill up the blank space on a page. Handwriting however, in my opinion provides an escape from the endless word counts and page numbers.
But then you encounter a different problem when writing on paper. The use of wrong grammar or misspelt words, there is no tool to point out your mistakes. If I start handwriting I have to constantly work and think a lot more about how to spell some words and if at the end of the day my sentences make sense. This, in some way, is making us become dependent of a certain standard of word processing.
Another distraction when writing essays on my laptop is all the entertainment that is in reach, I can access anything from music, movies, games, shows and even simplest thing such as going through my emails. And all of this will have an impact on the quality of my text. Suddenly my essay becomes far to easy to ignore and the flow of fresh words for my text slows down. . The screen also is tiring to look at and gives me a headache after a while.
Even after all of this the benefits, writing on a computer are not to be left behind. The writing process is much faster than hand writing, correcting and editing is much easier and the spelling correction is always there. The simple fact that MS Word automatically corrects some words and frequent spelling mistakes speeds up the writing process immensely. Typing all of your ideas without being distracted by grammar and punctuation keeps a fast paced and steady evolution in your essay. Some of these thing must be said and is what keeps us from going back to pen and paper.
The downside to becoming so used to the computer working for you is when the computer misses your mistakes. The word processing software is not perfect and often misses mistakes that we over look and assume have been corrected. Personally, I struggle with this and tend not to proof read as carefully as I should. Because of technology my writing has gotten more informal and it’s easier to write in a personal or informal tone. Because I use technology so much to communicate to friends and family it is sometimes difficult to transition to scholarly and formal writing styles. Because English was my second language, I must admit that the auto correct function is just perfect for me to peruse my studies without having to invest in extra English classes, but not for me to improve my English skills and vocabulary.
Handwriting would be the best option for me to improve my language skills however using a word processing tool is what I need to keep on track with my studies and is the reason I use and will continue using it.
