Using computer technology to teach and evaluate prewriting

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to determine whether computer-aided instruction may be effectively utilized in stimulating prewriting composition when the CAI is based upon (1) conceptual (cognitive) strategies, (2) "datadriven" guidance (resulting from CAE techniques), and (3) recent findings in tutorial strategies research. If this specifically designed CAI is as good a means of prewriting instruction as personal tutoring and a better means than classroom instruction, then the practical and economical implications may be weighed in a decision to use such techniques. Forty-three college freshmen in three basic writing classes participated in this study. One class was exposed to a CAI medium, the other two either to a human tutor or to classroom instruction. A computer-aided evaluation of previous essays provided focus, and other intellectual processing cues provided information on an expository topic; this "database" was then used to construct a CAI program to encourage "specificity" and "depth of intellectual processing" in students' prewriting composition. The program also possessed and was designed to provide "conceptual guidance" through the use of five heuristic procedures; thus it contained two key elements that a human tutor would possess in working with a topic--knowledge of the topic, and a means for eliciting that knowledge from the tutee. The second treatment method used consisted of instruction by human tutors, utilizing the same methodology. The control for the study consisted of a classroom instruction group.

Computers in writing instruction

“…Invention programs have often used "heuristics" as prewriting strategies (see Young, 1976) -to increase the quality and quantity of ideas that writers can use in their essays. Research has focused on the number of ideas produced (Burns & Culp, 1980), structured heuristics compared to unstructured freewriting (Strickland, 1987), and the effects of peer comment on prewriting ideas (Schwartz, 1984;Gillis, 1987), but the studies are too diverse to generalize.…”