Proposal Essay - Final Draft

_______________A Digital Age for Textbooks

______Every year, tens of thousands of textbooks are purchased by students from all around the world. Many of these textbooks are simply a new edition of a previously available version with merely a couple extra chapters and reorganized questions. In a world seeking new, more sustainable practices one would think combating this wasteful trend would be higher on peoples’ to-do list. The high cost and great importance of a quality education necessitates this issue to be of significant importance. The solution to this problem would be relatively simple if it were to be accepted wide scale, not only by students, but teachers, professors, and administrators as well. In an age where nearly every student has access to a computer, it is hard to imagine a reason why more institutions are not leaning toward alternative methods of textbook distribution, mainly e-books or other similar practices. Although physical textbooks seem to be the preferred form of educational assistance at most universities, schools should offer all of their textbooks in digital format as well because they are far more economical, easier on students, and less detrimental to the environment.

______To begin with, the price of textbooks can be ridiculously high with those numbers rising annually. The cost of quality printing ink runs at approximately eight-thousand dollars per gallon. Add to this the increasing cost of paper coupled with the necessity for new editions of any given book to be created every so often makes it no wonder why books become so prohibitively expensive. A major issue facing publishers of electronic books are concerns about piracy. However, this does not seem to be a legitimate hesitation due to the rate at which new editions replace old on a semi-regular basis. Some e-books already have security measures which prohibit the unauthorized redistribution of copyrighted materials. While this technique of digital protection against piracy has problematic in certain situations, it could easily be fixed for student applications in order to make it so these hitches are not problems. Distribution could be handled in several ways, one of the easiest being downloading the book off the Internet. Other possibilities would be leasing out thumb drives with certain books on them or even complete preloaded laptops.

______In many cases, textbooks can account for twenty to thirty percent of a students’ overall cost of education. By the end of ones’ college career these costs can be as much as three-thousand dollar, and occasionally well beyond that amount. The total cost of all books purchased is enough to buy several laptop computers each of which far more capable than displaying only static text and pictures. A growing number of colleges are starting to supply laptops to their students as part of their standard tuition. Recently, a new trend of mini laptops has overwhelmed the market as well. Laptops can be obtained for as little as two-hundred and fifty dollars each, a bill that can easily compete with an entire semester’s worth of books for some students.

______Lastly, the mass production of all these textbooks on a yearly basis is terrible for the environment. Even though nearly fifty percent of the product used in paper production at present is recycled not all of it can be. Not to mention the process of making paper itself is not nearly as clean as one might assume. Many toxic chemicals are used to bleach and break down the fibers from trees in order to create the desired type of pulp for different forms of paper. Most of the waste is generated as a side effect of updating content. Each time a new edition for a textbook comes out all the old editions currently in circulation become near obsolete. Fortunately, systems for recycling books are constantly being invented, still textbooks have a higher depreciation rates than most cars meaning sellers seldom make their money back.

______In closing, physical textbooks are just tremendously wasteful compared to the alternative of just releasing everything in a digital format. Presently, the cost of school is high enough that it does not make much sense to force students into spending more than some can barely afford especially when they do not have to. Some schools already offer leased laptops to their students and when comparing the price of textbooks themselves to a computer with numerous PDF documents the price is comparable if not greater. The most important reason we should offer text in both digital and physical format is so we can curb the amount of waste we produce from this overlooked source. After all, with computers being everywhere we should take full advantage of their capabilities.