Interactive Effects of Computer Network and Student Characteristics on Students' Writing and Collaborating.

Onondaga-Madison (New York) County Board of Cooperative Educational Services Since its inception, the team of microcomputer and word processing program has enjoyed a comfortable alliance with writers, especially at the revision and editing stages.

Abstract

Onondaga-Madison (New York) County Board of Cooperative Educational Services Since its inception, the team of microcomputer and word processing program has enjoyed a comfortable alliance with writers. Computers with their word processing programs facilitate the composing process, especially at the revision and editing stages. In the early years, when the study of writing was still largely the work of cognitive psychologists, computer programs designed to teach people how to write more effectively dealt in purely cognitive ways with issues such as planning (Burns, 1984; Rodrigues & Rodrigues, 1984; Schwartz, 1982; Wresch, 1982) and revising or editing (Bean, 1983; Collier, 1983; Kiefer & Smith, 1984). Typically, individual writers faced with the task of beginning an essay would sit at a keyboard and terminal, using a prewriting program that would prompt them with questions designed to stimulate thought and deep exploration of their chosen topic. Those same individuals, once they had initial drafts of their papers, also would take advantage of the editing capabilities of their word processing program to revise and edit those initial drafts. Some programs especially developed for instructional purposes would even help writers detect their spelling and grammatical errors or provide a description of the syntax or discourse features of the writing. The purpose of these text analytic devices was to assist the writer in making decisions about how to revise the essay.