Students and Microsoft Word are not generally associated with each other, but the time comes when the loan runs low and students can no longer spend all day in the pub. This is the time they generally allocate for actually doing their work and when the work starts Microsoft word is the application that is generally at the centre of it.

When the course work starts to pile up, whether it is a dissertation, essay, report, lab write up, documentation or just answering some questions most students will just go to their computer and open Microsoft word. It is probably fair to say that it does not matter which course is being taken, or what the piece of work needs to be done, Microsoft Word will be used in some shape or form to aid in the completion of the piece of work.

But why Microsoft Word, why not something else? Firstly nearly everyone either has Microsoft Word or has access to it. Secondly you can use Microsoft Word for nearly any task. Due to its popularity Microsoft Word has developed into what we see today, which is an extremely versatile word processing package that is the first port of call not only for students but home and business users as well.

Microsoft Word will have many uses for a student throughout their study; these uses include report writing, essay writing, dissertation and project write up, lab reports and planning for all types of work. Word is the application of choice for these tasks as it allows you to easily customise and format the piece of work, so that you are able to submit your piece of work knowing that it is well set out, all of the formatting is correct, there are no spelling or grammar errors and most importantly that the piece of work has a consistent style throughout the document. As every student will find out whilst they are studying, each piece of work requires a different style and every lecturer that you have will have their own preference for how they like a piece of work to be formatted and presented. This is the main reason why students love Microsoft Word so much. You can just produce your piece of work to the guidelines that have been given to you, and then when you learn slightly more about what the lecturer is after, you are able to quickly and easily alter the style of the piece of work. By doing this you are able to scrape an extra mark or two purely because your work is presented the way the person marking likes. And at the end of the day, those extra couple of marks could make all the difference.

Another great feature of Microsoft Word is that it is great for research. When using Microsoft Word you can copy and paste images, text or pretty much anything you want. You can use Microsoft Word as a scrap book to paste any useful information that you find into it. Then when it comes to producing your piece of work you have all the information you need in one document

In essence without Microsoft Word your student life will become slightly dull, as you will end up spending a lot more time on your work and a lot less time on your social life.