The Professional Essayist (Google Tip)

With a vast majority of schools moving towards Google Docs, particularly with students, the question of "professional" or "scholarly" quality work being produced using a simple Google Doc keeps coming up.  I've had discussions over the past month or so at several school districts about quality (i.e. college level) using Google.

We can certainly agree that:

• a Google document does not have the same feel or adaptability that Word does.  Formatting a scholarly essay has its challenges with the framework of Google tools.  Finding and formatting headers, for instance, is a unique experience (headers are under "insert", btw).
• Docs don't have all the same bells and whistles that Word does.

So why the urgency of switching?

1. The whole attachment/submission issue...no attachment issues, file formats not opening or lost (or blocked) emails to worry about.  
2. Immediate feedback...add comments, corrections and other notes directly on the document and students have immediate response for correction or improvement.
3. Immediate access...access to Google docs is from any wi-fi or cellular device.
4. Plagiarism...at any point in a Google doc, you can highlight text and search for it using Google.  This is one of the most efficient and quick ways to find plagiarized work.
5. Universities, most notably the UW system, has gone or is going Google.

Zoho also makes a great online suite of programs (presentations, docs, spreadsheets, etc...) which are the "middle ground" between word and Google.  Zoho is also online, has similar sharing features and includes more bells and whistles than Google's baseline docs.

[Please note that both Google and Zoho have the ability to "save as" wither a Word document or a PDF so students with no internet access at home have the ability to convert files and still work productively at home.]