Powerful applications such as Microsoft Office's Excel and Word are widely used to perform common tasks in the workplace and in education. Scripting within these applications allows unanticipated user requirements to be addressed. We show that such extensibility, intended to support office automation-type applications, is well suited to the…

Many people are interested in computer aids to rhetorical invention and want to know how to evaluate an invention aid, what the criteria are for a good one, and how to assess the trade-offs involved in buying one product or another. The frame of reference for this evaluation is an "old paradigm," which treats the computer as if it were…

In 1984, the Commissions on Composition, Curriculum, Language, Literature, Media, and Reading of the National Council of Teachers of English presented reports on important educational trends and issues. The Commission on Language suggested that the move toward curriculum reform stemming from national reports on quality in education could have…