Reports on the predrafting processes of several high and several low writing apprehensive students engaged in academic writing and analyzes the differences related to writing apprehension. (HOD)

A study was undertaken to observe the prewriting processes of four high and four low writing apprehensive college students and to explore any composing patterns that seemed characteristic of the two groups. During the study, each of the eight participants attended at least four 90-minute sessions that were designed to document the complex…

Through the use of WORDSWORTH II, the faculty at Michigan Technological University have found that computer-assisted instruction can be useful in teaching students the processes involved in revision. A series of computer programs, WORDSWORTH II is available outside of and in addition to regular classroom instruction and offers students effective…

An experiment in which students were required to keep journals during a civil engineering course is described. Student benefits (journals as problem-solving tools and forums for personal comments), faculty benefits (sources of background information and use as evaluation/recordkeeping tools), and five major conclusions are discussed. (JN)

Four overlapping areas of exploration have sparked creative thought about computers and their relationship to writing. The area receiving the most attention is computers and writing pedagogy. Some of the directions taken by research in this area have focused on computers and the composing process; computers, writing instruction, and learning…

Recounts the difficulties and rewards of designing and establishing a computer-based writing lab--including problems with planning, funding, staffing, and expansion of physical space. (NKA)

Intended for writing teachers and administrators of middle school through college writing programs, this guide suggests how to translate approaches to teaching composition into computer assisted instruction (CAI) software. The book encourages writing teachers to see themselves as composition specialists who can team up with specialists in computer…

To explore the role of one specific revision strategy--reading and rereading pieces of text--in the composing process, case studies were made of two college freshman writers: Jim, who was highly apprehensive about the process of composing, and David, who was not at all apprehensive about writing. Specifically, videotapes of the students' composing…

Wordsworth II, a cooperative venture of English teachers and computer scientists at Michigan Technological University, is designed to be a viable alternative to the computer assisted instruction (CAI) currently on the market for college writing courses. Consisting of eight process-based modules, the program offers a sophisticated and interactive…

Offers guidelines for instructors designing computer labs to support existing writing programs, based on three main suggestions: (1) design computer-supported writing labs around writers, not around computers; (2) ground lab operations and instruction in current writing theory and pedagogy; and (3) use labs to support research on writing…

A series of computer programs have been developed at Michigan Technological University for use with technical writing and technical communications classes. The first type of program in the series, CURIE II, includes process-based modules, each of which corresponds to one of the following assignments: memoranda, resumes, feasibility reports,…

Suggests four overlapping areas of exploration that might help spark "creative re-formations" of the way English teachers think about computers and their relationship to writing: (1) computers and teaching writing, (2) computers and language theory, (3) computers and learning from the past, and (4) computer research in other fields. (GEA)