Hi Greg
The Iliad is certainly not a tool for writing a 1000 word essay. Also not for speed writing.
It is good for casual note taking though. Based on the info which you have provided, I think what you need is a PC tablet.
Here in Singapore, we have already started using PC tablets for secondary schools since 2005. Here are the results of the study:
http://tabletpceducation.blogspot.co...singapore.html
http://ctl.sri.com/projects/displayP...?Nick=tabletpc
http://www.fujitsu.com/downloads/COM...tudies/cgs.pdf
http://www.ida.gov.sg/News%20and%20E...getPagetype=20
Hope that the above will be useful for you.
Best regards
Quek