Electronic Letter Writing Between Children and Pre-Service Teachers:

Analysis of the effect of networking on computer-assisted collaborative writing in a fifth grade classroom

“…These significant results indicated that the treatment effected the quality of the written product. This finding supports previous research suggesting that an audience that was someone other than the regular classroom teacher and writing that was used to communicate to an audience, should influence the quality of the writing (Riel, 1985;Bright, Hunsberger, & Labercane, 1988;Newman, 1989). This finding also contributes to the research suggesting that the computer-mediated telecommunications network environment helps students understand writing for a purpose and to communicate to a real audience (Diaute, 1988;Riel, 1985;Graves, 1985).…”

“…This finding also contributes to the research suggesting that the computer-mediated telecommunications network environment helps students understand writing for a purpose and to communicate to a real audience (Diaute, 1988;Riel, 1985;Graves, 1985). having a purpose for writing and writing to an audience other than the teacher will affect the quality of the writing produced (Graves, 1985;Kiel, 1985;Bright, Hunsberger, & Labercane, 1988;Newman, 1989). Graves (1983) notes that children write more effectively when they are writing for a purpose and when they know someone other than the teacher will be reading what they write.…”