1. Basic Writers and the Computer.
- Author
-
Hunter, Linda
- Abstract
Students in a remedial composition course at St. Olaf College were required to write all their papers on a microcomputer. It was assumed that text editing would be useful not only in the writing and revision processes, but also in building both confidence and morale as students mastered its techniques. The assignments were explained on Monday, and Wednesday students were required to bring drafts to small groups for discussion. Later in the week they brought in revised drafts for individual conferences with the instructors, while the following Monday they turned in yet another revision. In addition, an hour of writing workshop time was required, during which instructors worked with students on specific problems indicated by earlier papers. One class period in the first week was spent introducing the students to the system. In an evaluation of the course, students reported that they used the computer for drafting papers and some even used it for prewriting. Two-thirds of the students were comfortable with the computer after the second paper. Most found the formatting and revision-enabling functions of the computer helpful, but fewer than half made much use of the computer's functions of moving chunks of text around or making global corrections. A comparison of drafts from five randomly selected students indicated that paragraph addition, deletion, and change were about as frequent as word/sentence revision. For most students, text editing proved to be a helpful tool. (HOD)
- Published
- 1983