None of my work turned out like it was supposed to. My papers were usually a mess. I would usually think of something that needed to be added to the introduction so that the part I was adding could be part of the paper and still make sense. Then I would be thinking of any part of the paper other than what I was working on at the time. I hated writing different drafts. That took time and by the time I turned my paper in I had a serious case of writer's cramp. I wanted my papers to look perfect. So I would try to write my pages with no scratch outs. Like the cheerleaders and the popular people. That never worked. Usually about half way through a 5-page paper I'd give up and just do my best.
Somewhere between 1981 and 1983 - when I lived in Beaumont, TX - I went with my parents to see Dr. William Glasser. I told him that I wanted to go to college, but I had already failed at 3 attempts. He told me that I needed a word processor to help me get through college.
The main feature of this wonderful new kind of word arranger was cut and paste. It could cut and paste parts of the document into different parts. You could have the introduction, the conclusion, and as many paragraphs in-between open at all one time. You could work on the document as naturally as you were thinking. I loved it. THEN you could just print out the finished product. People used to not use the word processor - the teacher wanted a rough draft. I'd just print out both copies.
It was then that I began to compose at the keyboard. My thoughts come out so much faster when I am typing than when I am writing in long hand. When writing in long hand I would often get bogged down in the actual writing and lose my thoughts. I type better than I write - and it does not take as long to record what I am thinking. It was much easier letting my thoughts flow naturally. If something looked like it needed to become another paragraph, or an item needed to be added to the introduction to make the paper work.
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