This paper reports on an out of school creative writing collaboration between a grandmother (the author) and her then eleven-year-old granddaughter, and suggests ways in which this may be relevant to writing in school. The narrative is framed and analysed in the light of Donald Graves' concepts of process writing. The paper highlights the…

While the use of machine translation (MT) in the classroom has been explored from various perspectives, the relationship between language proficiency and MT use regarding learners' behaviors and beliefs remains unclear in the research literature. This study focused on four Japanese learners with various language proficiencies from a fourth-year…

Our study explored EFL writing skills in relation to self-experience in an authentic learning context with the help of a mobile application. Two authentic writing activities ('Tell your story' and 'Describe your context') were designed and compared to see if they resulted in significant differences in EFL writing performance and writing behavior.…

Although it remains controversial, machine translation (MT) has gained popularity both inside and outside of the classroom. Despite the growing number of students using MT, little is known about its use as a pedagogical tool in the EFL classroom. The present study investigated the role of MT as a CALL tool in EFL writing. Most studies on MT as a…

The literature on corrective feedback (CF) that second language writers receive in response to their grammatical and lexical errors is plagued by controversies and conflicting findings about the merits of feedback. Although more recent studies suggest that CF is valuable (e.g., Bitchener, 2008; Sheen, 2007), it is still not clear whether direct or…

Explores the advantages and disadvantages of microcomputer text editors and spelling checkers and implications for their classroom use. (SRT)

Gives a case history of how one writing group devised a way to deal with the problem of author-created noun strings and long, indecipherable unit modifiers, satisfying both internal and external clients. Describes the development of an in-house usage guide. (PRA)

Discusses ways an editor can cut out words to help the reader understand quickly. Discusses dead wood, redundancy, redundancy in thought, smothered verbs, false precision, editing and academia, and making copy smoother. (SR)

One goal of computer-based instruction in writing is to help students to edit their compositions, particularly those compositions written on a word processor. This can be accomplished by a complete editing program that would contain the full set of mechanics rules--capitalization, punctuation, spelling, usage--appropriate for the grade level of…

A project followed the development of a curriculum of editing assignments used to bridge the gap between Miami-Dade Community College students' passive command of grammatical rules and active use of them in their writing. Assumptions and strategies used in developing the curriculum included: (1) the idea that editing must be seen as a part of the…