Word Processors, PCs Aid in Writing

It’s no secret that more writers, including students, are setting aside the traditional typewriter in favor of the computer or word processor.

Like many of my fellow teachers and writers, I have found that a word processor can improve and speed the writing process. My students also report that working with a word processor makes writing less painful--and even fun.

If you’re thinking about obtaining a computer or word processor for yourself or your child, consider some of the advantages over pen and typewriter.

In a nutshell, composing on a computer has simplified the act of writing by making the revising process much easier and more efficient. The main benefit is that you can rewrite, correct, change and delete portions of your paper without retyping the whole manuscript.

As a result, students and other writers are generally much more willing to revise and polish their work when it’s done on a word processor.

In addition, using a word processor also seems to improve the mechanical quality of a writer’s work.

I have noticed among my students that mistakes in content, grammar and even typographical errors are often ignored by writers using typewriters because they just don’t want to type another copy.

But with a word processor, correcting such errors is fast, especially since most word processing programs can check for misspelling and other mistakes.

The word processor can also improve the general appearance of your work because it can change spacing and margins, boldface or italicize words, center words or phrases, justify text, and close spaces left by deletions and substitutions.

Just as there are different writing styles for those who use a pen or typewriter, there are various ways to write with a word processor.

Some writers work directly with the keyboard and compose their first draft without stopping to revise or edit until the rough draft is done. They don’t even print a copy of their paper until they’ve made all the needed changes.

Other writers first produce their draft by hand, and then use the word processor for preparing their final copy.

Still others write on the screen, print a copy, revise it with pen or pencil, then type and print a final copy on the word processor.

I realize that some people are less afraid of bungee-jumping than of touching a computer. Indeed, using a word processor may be frustrating and confusing at first, but soon you’ll be able to move around and delete words, sentences, and paragraphs, or even entire pages.

You will also be able to store and copy parts or all of the manuscript to use for other purposes.

None of this comes cheap, of course. Some hybrid products--essentially typewriters with some word-processing capabilities--can be obtained for under $500. But a good personal computer and printer are likely to run close to $2,000. It is, however, a long-term investment that can serve you throughout school and beyond.

A word of caution when using a word processor, which my school newspaper staff and I once learned the hard way after a long day of typing articles into our word processor: A blown fuse or accidental unplugging may erase all of your work.

Your best bet is to save your work onto a disk every few minutes, and then store your completed work on a backup disk.

Sudden power surges can also erase your work, so buying an electrical adapter that protects against such surges is a wise investment.

Finally, bear in mind that using a word processor won’t magically make you a good writer. You’ll still need to develop and plan your papers carefully, arrange your ideas logically and smoothly, and use good word choice and sentence structure.

But for the last important (and otherwise tedious) stage of the writing process--revising and editing--I think the word processor is the most accurate and speedy tool.