Gratitude Series 2018, Day Thirteen: A Writing Tool

I am grateful for the ability to write on word processing software.  I'm in that generation inbetween Gen X and Millenials, where home computers were brand new and not heavily used when I was in high school, but where we used them daily in college and our professional life.

Growing up, I remember my mom taking papers to a typist (as she worked on an advanced degree) because it wasn't easy to fix errors when the final copy wasn't composed on a computer.  I remember my dad dictating letters for his secretary to type as we drove to grandparents' houses in rural Nebraska.  I hand wrote my school papers, trying not to make too many errors that would have to be scribbled out, trying to get my wording right on the first try so that I wouldn't have to rewrite the entire project.

So when I started using a word processing program to write my papers in college, I appreciated the new ability to make mistakes and easily correct them.  To write a messy first draft and extensively revise it.  To not be a perfect typist.  To save documents in the middle and then come back to them very easily.  And now, several years later, to save a document on one computer and be able to access and revise it on any other computer (or my phone!).   Word processing really improves the ease of the writing and editing process and allows for much sharper and better crafted prose, and for that I am grateful.