Motivational research identifies utility value, or the importance of a learning task to future goals, as central to motivation to learn. This study analyzed survey data (N=86) collected from adult literacy learners to examine their utility value of writing improvement in grammar and spelling skills, word processing skills, and planning, drafting,…

Motivational research identifies utility value, or the importance of a learning task to future goals, as central to motivation to learn. This study analyzed survey data (N = 86) collected from adult literacy learners to examine their utility value of writing improvement in grammar and spelling skills, word processing skills, and planning,…

This study compares the effects of two resources, a paper rubric (CR) or the comment bubbles from a word processor (CCB), to support peer co-evaluation of expository texts in primary education. A total of 57 students wrote a text which, after a peer co-evaluation process, was rewritten. To analyze the improvements in the texts, we used a rubric…

Many students with learning disabilities (LD) and emotional/behavioral disorders (EBD) struggle with the writing process. Technology has shown to be effective in supporting prewriting, drafting, revising, proofreading, and publishing of written products. This article explains the use of one technology-based graphic organizer with embedded…

The relative effectiveness of two writing accommodations, word processing (WP) and speech-recognition (SR) technology, was examined relative to the writing skills of four boys with Asperger syndrome. The more effective accommodation was then combined with the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) writing intervention and compared with SRSD…

This study investigated the effect of computer-mediated corrective feedback types in an English as a foreign language (EFL) intact class over time. The participants were 64 English majors who were assigned randomly into three treatment conditions that gave and received computer-mediated corrective feedback while writing (track changes, word…

During this decade there have been numerous efforts to identify instructional practices that improve students' writing. These include "Reading Next" (Biancarosa and Snow, 2004), which provided a set of instructional recommendations for improving writing, and "Writing Next" (Graham and Perin, 2007) and "Writing to Read" (Graham and Hebert, 2010),…

Word processing software eliminates the physical barrier that young children experience as they struggle to make letters, by hand as well as the psychological barriers some children perceive when they equate their poor handwriting with a lack of writing ability. (MT)

This investigation examined the effects of currently available word prediction software programs that support phonetic/inventive spelling on the quality of journal writing by six students with severe writing and/or spelling difficulties in grades three through six during a month-long summer writing program. A changing conditions single-subject…

The writing center at Central-Hower High School in Akron, Ohio, provides all students access to and assistance in computerized word processing. This article describes the writing center's purpose, goals, hardware, and software, and outlines the processes used to train teachers and students in using the system. (PGD)

Outlines one school's approach to using microcomputers to help teach writing skills in high school. (MD)

After examining the related research, it is difficult to conclude with certainty that the use of word processors is always effective in improving writers' revising skills or that their use necessarily leads to the production of higher quality texts. Their effectiveness depends on other factors that psychologists are starting to measure. (110…

Discusses briefly three reports (a meta-analysis, a project description, and a reformulation of the "quality" question) on the usefulness of word processors and telecommunications in improving student writing. (SR)

Evaluates "Editor," arguably the most sophisticated grammar and style checker. Tests its effectiveness by using samples from one student and one published writer. Finds that "Editor" is limited to identifying problems in surface structure and that it sometimes identifies "errors" which are not errors while failing to…

Describes a sociology course in which the word processor was used as an aid for teaching writing. States that the personal computer could have its greatest pedagogical impact as a device to improve students writing. Concludes that word processors have been shown to be effective tools for encouraging students to write and improve required papers.…