In my writing experience, I pretty much have always used a computer. Of course, I have lived in a time when the average person didn’t have any access to a computer, so I remember life without them—my first story was written on Post-Its (I was five). Since my mother has been involved with computers since 1974 (she programmed and controlled the attendance program for her high school), I’ve naturally been very adept with computers, due, simply, to exposure: she made sure my siblings and I had access to one as soon as we were old enough to learn.

Now, it has become so ingrained in me to write at the computer that it has actually become an issue for me to write on paper. Just last week, we had a practice essay-test in my film class, and the paper worked out fine—with a ton of cross-outs and scribbles. After getting really frustrated with myself—blaming my inability to write a coherent thought on not writing at all over the summer—I realized that I was so used to being able to having the freedom of a word processor. When writing on the computer, users have the option to write whatever they want: if it doesn’t work for the document, just delete it and rephrase (or copy and move). On paper, this method is not so practical.

My word processor of choice is Word. I shouldn’t say that this is a choice, because I’ve tried to switch to other programs and just can’t shake my slave-bond to Microsoft. I use it for every type of writing I do: essays, poems, stories, blog-writing, etc. It has come to be that I rely on Word to get my ideas out. While it is true that hand-writing ideas and essays takes entirely too long, that isn’t the reason for my junkie-like tie to Word. I see the empty document on screen and just start typing; after a while, I usually get my ideas out just by expressing my thoughts on-screen and then I organize.

However, I think the whole system is the reason I choose to write in Word: not only physically, such as using the keyboard, but I can also tap into any resource I want to help me formulate my ideas (Encarta, past papers, the Internet). Word pleases my stylistic needs, copies and pastes, corrects my spelling, and helps me put out an organized paper (this one excluded, as it seems to be more informal). Without Word, I don’t know if I would have chosen to be an English major; I like the idea of spending my workdays typing at a computer—it’s an individual activity, expressive, and includes a variety of projects to produce. Suffice to say, after this rambling narrative, that I love writing, but only on the condition that I can do it in Word.