Assignment 2 – Justin Tooley

While looking through the table of contents I was most interested in chapter 6 Writing with a Computer. In this chapter I read sections 6.1,6.2,6.3 and 6.4. These sections mostly focused on the perks of using a computer to write your papers as well as what programs to use and how to use them.

            One of the perks discussed in chapter 6 is how easy it is to save and look at your work. You can save several different iterations of your work, so it is easy to undo changes you no longer like. Having work saved to a hard drive also serves to keep you organized, making it nearly effortless to organize all your files. Another perk discussed is that a typed paper will always look like a professional copy. In other words, you do not have to worry if you have bad handwriting. 

Although do your work on the computer can come with many conveniences it can also have negatives.  One of the most import ones focused on in this chapter is the risk of losing all your work. With all your work in one place if something were to happen your hard drive you could lose all your work. So, this section recommends you back up all your work at least once a week to an external hard drive or the cloud. Another negative is that while a paper writing on a computer will always look professional you may subconsciously think of everything writing on a computer as a final copy. This can be bad for when you need to edit your papers. 

Overall, I think the beginning of chapter 6 does a good job of going over the negative and positive aspects of using a computer for writing. For me the most helpful tip was about saving backups so that you will not lose all your work if your hard drive unfortunately breaks.