A study was made of the capability of machine scoring of essays to determine a student's proficiency in English mechanics. A sample of 71 seventh grade essays were entered into a computer via punched cards and were processed using a modified version of the PEGFOR program. Prediction models, subtest models, and restricted models were tested for…

A five-part computer program helps college students generate essays. Its first part, a list generator, forces students to consider a number of subjects and to select one that is reasonably defined. The second part of the program asks a series of questions to elicit information about the chosen topic and to shape the information into appropriate…

The computer program sets up three dictionaries: basic, fiction, and fantasy. It then processes each essay by parsing the essay into words, checking if the word is a legal word (in the dictionary), and adding it to the essay unique word list. If the word was non-unique, the frequency count for that word in the essay word list is increased by one.…

The prediction of students' writing ability by the development of multiple regression models was investigated. Seventy-one essays and scores on the California Language Test by average seventh graders were used. Essays were entered in a modified Project Essay Grade (PEG) computer program. Results for three specific models are presented: (1) overall…