Essay On Student Writing Skills

Submitted By personalejcr
Words: 1785
Pages: 8

Prompt: Argue whether computers sharpen or weaken college student's writing skills.

Improving Writing Skills Using the Beneficial Functions of the Computer.

Humans continue to progress and improve throughout various aspects in life because of uprising technological advancements and new inventions. Without technology and useful inventions, the human race would remain in the primitive state of sticks and stones. One particular invention is the computer; it is versatile and advantageous in the sense that the computer allows multiple functions to improve college students’ conjoined writing skills. Computer software development has been focused on helping the writer produce quality pieces of writing along with the vast resources provided by the Internet and the ability to multitask between these two resources, which facilitates the writing process and makes college students’ duty more facile. (Citing pending)

Humankind’s ability to communicate through a structured, logical, and organized language is what distinguishes us humans from other beings. Writing is one of the most important characteristics of language; the ability of writing down information in an organized and coherent manner has helped our society to develop in ways that were not possible if we did not master written language.

Certain key factors and advancements that humankind has achieved have revolutionized the way we see and know things in the present day; from learning to teaching to technology and our understanding of the world. Computers are one of the most important advancements that we humans possess; computers are a tool that can be used to access, produce and modify information in ways that were not possible many years ago. Electronic media enabled a series of events that changed our perception in a variety of fields. According to Sharmila Pixy Ferris, “it was not until humans developed a means to record language that human society could really expand and grow” (2002). In essence Ferris states that without information-storing systems whether in physical/print state or digital/electronic form society would not have grown as much as it has. Computers bring about an endless amount of resources that help improve writing and education as a whole. For instance, “prominent scholars like Bolter (1996), Heim (1987), and Ong (1982) consider computers to be late developments of the print age” (Ferris 2002). Computers are very much like print material, yet they possess unique qualities; this makes the text more immediate and ready for the end user (Ferris 2002). Nowadays with the development of user friendly software, and the fact that computers are available to basically any individual who is willing and able to obtain one; information is available to everyone everywhere. Having access to the Internet has become a need to many people in our society, and more importantly it brings tremendous benefits that did not exist before the appearance of said technology. Electronic writing has influenced the way we perceive education. For most of students, it has become easier to type the information they need to transmit than do it handwritten; moreover, for the majority of people who are familiar with a computer interface, typing words is faster and easier than writing them.

Multitasking is definitely one of the advantages that computers bring about, plus combining writing with the resources available within the computer system to ascertain, improve and make sure the work is done concise and precisely are the most beneficial factors that electronic media has brought to society. The controversy on whether computers sharpen or weaken college students’ writings skill is illogical when referring to the various tools and resources available to aid learning in general at our disposal included on the computer. Computers sharpen writing abilities through the use of available tools found on the Internet and applications that computers are already equipped with. A