The world we live in today has so many digital tools that help college and university students with things like editing, spell check, creativity, citation, and more to ensure they produce amazing papers. It is not just students who benefit from digital tools, a professional working for essay writing companies also take advantage of these tools to make their lives easier. This article will look at the impact of digital tools on writing and how writing is taught in colleges.
The positive impact of digital tools
- Digital tools improve the communication skills of students
This is perhaps the biggest benefit of digital tools because it increases the interaction between tutors and students. The COVID-19 pandemic forced a lot of educational institutions to close down for months to stop the spread of the virus.
This led to many students and tutors using platforms such as Zoom, Skype, Viber, and WhatsApp. All these platforms are great because communication can be done in real-time and work in conjunction with grammar checking programs such as Grammarly to help students improve their writing as well as speaking skills.
- Digital tools help students produce amazing assignment papers
A student can sometimes get overwhelmed with their assignments, thankfully these days, students and even custom writing services have digital tools on their side. One of the most popular writing tools students use these days is called citation generators.
This platform helps students learn the various writing styles approved by many universities in the world like MLA, APA, Havard, and Chicago. Using digital tools makes the writing process a lot faster while also helping a student improve their writing, proofreading tools like Grammarly speed up the revision and correction process massively according to academic experts.
- Digital tools have helped increase creativity
Thanks to the internet, college, and university students, tutors, as well as services, can figure out new things all the time. This is because the internet is filled with ideas of other people they can look at for some much-needed inspiration.
The information these days is far easier to share compared to 25 years ago when emailing was the only go-to method. Professional academic writers say that students can now use plagiarism checkers and paraphrasing tools to enhance their creativity.
- Digital tools encourage collaboration
The tools found on PCs, tablets, and mobile phones today allows students, tutors, and top-rated online writing services to collaborate easily, develop teamwork skills, and complete group projects with ease. As a student progresses through their studies, the more complicated their assignment becomes but the ability to share diverse information helps with both teaching and improving one’s writing skills. Digital tools also allow people to set up forums where challenges are tackled through empathy and interpersonal communication skills.
- Digital tools improve the performance of students
There is no denying that technology has played a massive role in making students be more attentive and digest information quicker. In the past, it was hard for students to get in touch with good quality writers from professional writing services.
Thanks to the internet, students can reach out to various writers who can guide them to get better grades. Students these days pay more attention to detail which improves their overall writing skills which is all thanks to digital tools like urban dictionaries, plagiarism checkers, grammar checkers, citations generators, and more.
The negative impact of digital tools
- Plagiarism
Digital tools have made some students lazy and unable to produce prodigal content. They look at it as “why stress over trying to produce original content when they can just copy and paste findings related to their topic on the internet”. Little do they know that tutors are wise to these copy and paste tricks some students think they can get away with.
Tutors use plagiarism checker tools to catch students who are trying to cheat their way to high grades and once caught, they can be asked to redo the paper or suspended from the course altogether.
- Over-reliance on digital tools
If students don’t control how much they use digital tools, they can become over-reliant on them which can make them feel helpless if they don’t have access to them. This happens when students trust themselves less and put all their faith as well as trust in digital tools.
The use of digital tools has been rising in recent years and students must control how they use them. Moderate use according to services is highly advised so that students don’t become addicted to them and turn to them every time they have to produce essays.
- Cyber slang
Another problem when it comes to using digital tools is the emergence of what is known as cyber slang. Some words and phrases used online are too informal to be used in essays. When a student gets too used to the internet slang and incorporates these words into their texts, they will fail their assignments as they don’t meet academic standards. Students have to be careful not to get sucked into the world of internet slang because it will ruin their English writing skills and academic progression.
- Digital tools can cause students to lose their creativity skills
While digital tools are good, some may restrict a student’s creative control if they don’t know how to use or get the best out of them. When a student is working on a project or an assignment, the last thing they need is something that holds them back. This can lead to missed deadlines, getting poor grades, unwanted stress, and frustration. University or college life is stressful enough as it is, and many students turn to digital tools to make life easy.
When these tools are a hindrance instead of an ally, it can make life on campus a lot harder than it should be. When a student decides to turn to digital tools for help, they need to make sure they pick the ones that will help them through their academic journey and ignore the ones that will put a stop to it. Losing creative skills at the hands of digital tools is the last thing any student needs.
Final thoughts
Digital tools have had both a positive and negative impact on students but from the points above, it is clear to see that the good outweighs the bad. Things like grammar checkers, vocabulary boosters, and citation generators have helped students in recent years produce good quality papers and improve their writing skills at the same time. There are a few issues such as plagiarism and being over-dependent on these tools; however, research skills and academic writing have certainly benefited from digital tools.
