Google Docs, an online word processing application, is a promising tool for collaborative learning. However, many college instructors and students lack knowledge to effectively use Google Docs to enhance teaching and learning. Goals of this study include (1) assessing the effectiveness of using Google Docs in an out-of-class collaborative writing…

Argues that students in college composition courses do not recognize the need for revision, and when they do, they lack professional writers' determination to revise. Notes that word processing does not provide incentive or skill to rewrite. Explores the accumulative rhetoric of word processing as it is experienced by student writers. (RS)

Examines research on using word processors for writing and writing instruction. Argues that research can mislead and discourage teachers from using computers in their classrooms. Asserts that word processing encourages students to have fun while guiding them through the revision process. (MM)

Describes the nature and use of Structured Document Processors (SDPs), which integrate word processors and various writing aids to guide and control composing processes for specialized writing. Notes the need for SDPs in industry. Explores their implications for the practice and teaching of technical writing. (SR)

Recounts a conversation with author Ken Kesey. Describes a year-long graduate writing course in which Kesey and his students collaborated on a novel. Explains how the novel was written and how characters and plot were developed. Suggests that, if available to the class, computers would have simplified the writing. (SG)

Argues that Marcia Peoples Halio's "Student Writing: Can the Machine Maim the Message?" (which argues that students using IBM computers wrote better than those using Macintosh computers) is seriously flawed by methodological and interpretive errors. Explains the problems of Halio's article. Notes that the present article grew out of a…

Argues that Marcia Peoples Halio's "Student Writing: Can the Machine Maim the Message?" (which argues that students using IBM computers wrote better than those using Macintosh computers) is flawed by poor experimental design and is filled with questionable logic and evidence. Contends that she overlooks many specific features that make…

Presents a detailed critique of Marcia Peoples Halio's article "Student Writing: Can the Machine Maim the Message?" (which argues that students using IBM computers wrote better than those using Macintosh computers). Rejects the "Macintosh versus IBM" contention. Explores ways technology influences education and the growing…

Responds to criticisms of "Student Writing: Can the Machine Maim the Message?." Argues that cognitive psychologists, human computer interaction specialists, and teachers have provided "heavy support." Supports the use of "Writer's Workbench," the writing topic selection, self-selection, teaching methods, computer…

This paper presents 10 techniques for tutoring college-level writing students on word processors. Good teaching and tutoring techniques enable writers rather than simply demand compliance. A good technique: must not rely on a fancy word processing program; will take advantage of the basic word processing functions; will ask that the writer do…

Discusses word processing computer programs' potential to perform operations similar to those performed by computer assisted instruction (CAI). Suggests not abandoning CAI software entirely for the CAI potential of word processors. (RS)

Describes how the authors designed, tested, and implemented simple guides for Microsoft Word 5.0 and 5.5, WordPerfect 5.1, Rightwriter for the IBM Personal Computer and Microsoft Word, and Excel for Macintosh SE and/or LC. Urges business writing teachers to develop pragmatic translations of software manuals. (MM)

Presents a nine-assignment sequence that has students engage three interconnected problems of writing and word processing. (SR)

Considers ways in which writers use word processing packages. Analyzes the benefits and obstacles of such packages. Suggests that ease of revision can be both an advantage and a disadvantage. Observes that the limited ability to view an entire word-processed document inhibits critical reading. Argues that word processing technologies must be…

This report contains profiles of computer-based writing programs at 49 colleges which were originally submitted for empirical assessment by a 3-year project sponsored by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education and the City University of New York. The profiles, representing two-year and four-year, public and private, rural and…