Breaking My Back Edition #2

My opinion editorial is about the weight and price of our textbooks and how these issues could be better addressed.

As I proposed this argument, it was brought to my attention that E-books may not be suitable because many students don’t have computers, however, for the amount I have paid for my books each semester, I easily could have afforded to buy a laptop or computer and still had some money left over. Although laptop’s can be very pricey, there are many other ways a student can attain a laptop or computer to use. For one, there are many places on and off campus in which you can rent a computer for a semester, you can also apply for a number of scholarships and grants in which you are provided with money that could be used to buy a laptop, and many companies give away free laptops to students in drawing’s and other contests. The problem is not therefore the cost of providing a laptop, but rather that E-books may become more expensive to buy if people were required to buy them instead of textbooks. This statement may be true to a point because yes, I do agree that if textbooks were distinct the price of E-books would go up due to their greater demand, however, I do not believe that they would be any way as expensive as textbooks because they do not require paper, packaging, or backing, but rather your payment is just towards the actual text and information. Overall I find that E-books are the way of the future and a much better option for all those concerned.
Being a student is rough, not only do we endure little sleep and extraneous studying but we pay a great deal of money for the opportunity to do so. Now don’t get me wrong, I am very thankful to be here and it is a joy that I have the opportunity to come to such a great institution, however, I find it sad that although we live in a world with such great modern technology we are still required to buy hard cover textbooks for school. Not only are these books heavy and will damage your back, but many times they can cause straining and harm your eyes as well. Now, I have to admit that after just a few hours of typing this paper my eyes have become sore and it is difficult to read the computer screen. I thought that perhaps this would be the case with e-booking as well until I realized that after reading a textbook for a few hours I feel many of the same sensations, and have to leave for a half an hour and then come back in order to properly focus on the words I am reading. I do believe that E-booking may hurt a students eyes after a long period of time, however, I do not feel that this damage would be any worse than that of squinting to read small words in a textbook. With E-booking, after you have downloaded the book, you can go through and choose which font and size you would like the text to be displayed in, with a regular textbook this is not an option and many times you will end up squinting in order to read the material, thus damaging your eyes anyway. Yes it is true that reading from the computer for hours at a time over long periods will cause damage, but not any more than that of reading a textbook over the same course of time.



Questions:
Did you think that my argument was strong and represented a strong student approach to this topic? How could I make my argument stronger?

In this argument I am trying to appeal to other students, and also portray an enlightening yet realistic view to professors and administrators of this serious problem, do you think that I am doing this well? What other ways could  I do this better?