A study investigated the relative effects of using computers and writing by hand on secondary students' quality or quantity of writing, and on their attitudes toward writing. Subjects were 40 eighth-grade students in an Anglo-Chinese school in Hong Kong, with some experience in writing brief compositions. The word processing program used was PC-Write, with a RAM resident 80,000-word dictionary substituted for the PC-Write dictionary. The study lasted 5 months, including a typing training session, a word-processing session, and all writing sessions. in each 80-minute writing lesson, the researcher spent 30 minutes discussing how to write an essay. A guided writing sheet was handed out, and students were divided into two groups with separate supervision, one in the computer lab and one in the regular classroom. To encourage revision, subjects could rewrite at specified times, under supervision. Essays were rated for quality by two external raters. Writing quantity was measured by the number of words written. Student attitude was assessed by questionnaire. Results show that students using computers wrote better and longer essays. All subjects showed significant changes in attitude, but neither group felt writing in English was easy or enjoyable. A 43-item bibliography, the essay rating scale, and the attitude questionnaire are appended. (MSE)