(Speaking of composition class, I just had to write a compare and contrast paper too - it sucked! :P)
I took up written (or any other type of visual) communication over verbal communication awhile back, too, and I'm SO glad I did. I am so much less stressed! I hated talking to strangers because I knew that as soon as I spoke to them, they would assume that I'm hearing and speak back, and I would be immediately confused. My speech could probably pass me as a hearing person, but all too often I was getting frustrated and switching to written communication in the middle of a conversation, leaving the other person just as confused as I felt. In public, I write almost everything down now and while ASL will always be my preferred form of communication, any type of visual communication is second in line.
