One major threat to validity in high-stakes testing is construct-irrelevant variance. In this study we explored whether the transition from a paper-and-pencil to a computer-based test mode in a high-stakes test in China, the College English Test, has brought about variance irrelevant to the construct being assessed in this test. Analyses of the…

The present study aimed at improving Arab Open University (AOU) students' academic writing through integrating some identified reading and writing research skills. This was achieved by applying a blended course which employed Web-Quests (WQs) that integrated the two skills to improve students' academic writing. The study adopted one group design…

The effects of computer and paper test media on EFL test-takers with different computer familiarity in writing scores and in the cognitive writing process have been comprehensively explored from the learners' aspect as well as on the basis of related theories and practice. The results indicate significant differences in test scores among the…

The introduction of digital literacy practices has created a tension in academia, with many academics challenging the view that critical thinking can be fostered on social networks. A quasi-experimental study was conducted on two sections of university-level writing classrooms to determine if there were meaningful differences in the quality of…

Students are entering a workforce that demands competency in writing both for explicit communication through e-mail as well as in products in the company's day-to-day dealings. Strategies for teaching students to communicate in writing have been evaluated extensively in a face-to-face environment. Many of those successful strategies have been…

In this electronic age, handwriting seems to have lost its place in America's classrooms. But while today's students do use the computer for many projects, ultimately they need to have legible handwriting--for employment applications, loan applications, formal social correspondence, note taking, and test taking. Here, the authors call for a…

Traces the early history of the electronic digital computer and the viewpoints held concerning the computer from its inception to its present status. Highlights three key words ("mimesis,""topic," and "decorum") to develop the rhetoricality of the personal computer as a communications device. (KEH)

This article describes a project in which the reality and importance of newspaper production was integrated into the language arts curriculum in a second-grade classroom. Both a print- and a multimedia-based class newspaper were produced using the Student Writing Center software and HyperStudio. The activity involved the input of a university…

Proposes to improve spelling at the high school level by incorporating it into the writing process, using computers to the best advantage, and fostering the improvement of both critical and creative thinking skills. (MS)

Asserts that, although computers pose no threat to reading and writing as modes of learning, knowing, and telling, they represent an attack on the Western tradition of textuality. Argues that instructors are needed whose literacy connects them with the orality of the past and bridges their present experience to the textuality of the future. (PRA)

Describes an experimental course at Allegheny College in computer-generated poetry, which required students to deal simultaneously with grammar and rhetoric, poetics, the computer and BASIC, logic and artificial intelligence in order to create programs that would generate poetry. Examples of verses produced by course participants are included.…

Identifies problems in the computer-supported group writing of MBA students who are both novice strategic report writers and novice users of technology that supports group work. Suggests several reasons for these problems. (KEH)

Computerized writing (the digitized word) may affect the utility and meaning of reading and writing in coming generations. The digitized word poses no threat to the technology of literacy; it merely entrenches literacy further into Western culture by making certain operations faster, easier, repeatable, etc. One significant, positive by-product of…

In the proliferation of articles about using computers in the composition classroom published in the last five or ten years, few mention anything about preparing students to compose on a computer while all assert that computers do indeed help the composing process. Preparing students to compose on a computer involves three major processes:…

Since there are similarities between the process of writing computer programs and the process of writing successful expository prose, a student's knowledge of computer programing can contribute to the understanding of some principles of composition. The establishment of a clear objective is the first priority of both the writer and the programer,…