Employs three approaches in a summative evaluation of ENFI (Electronic Networks for Interaction), a local area network used to teach writing through the use of software that supports real-time communication. Suggests that the ENFI setting allows a writing teacher to more easily model the creation of a writing persona. (RS)

Observes two writing teachers, enthusiastic about computers, teaching for the first time in networked computer classrooms. Finds resistance to change attributable to unfamiliarity with hardware and software, the need to cope with print text and electronic text, and conflict between models of writing instruction brought to the facility and that…

Discusses the social nature of collaborative writing and describes collaborative writing in the workplace and the classroom. Discusses the kinds of computer-supported technology available to support such collaboration, and associated problems. Notes research questions needing to be addressed for the next decade of computer-supported collaborative…

Examines groups of business writing students containing high- and low-apprehensive writers, communicating about writing in both a face-to-face setting and through electronic mail. Concludes that, for both types of writers, collaboratively planning documents on e-mail enhanced the collaborative process. (MM)

This study investigated the effects of having student writers use a set of networked computers to assist them in their writing lessons. Subjects were 15 students who were designated by their school district as remedial writers because they did not pass a writing competency test in their freshman year. For 10 weeks students participated in the…

In a feminist classroom an instructor who acts as an "interested party" rather than an authority, fosters an environment of care and connection which can result in life-changing discoveries for the participants. Drawing on David Bleich's conception of a "socially generous research" that removes hierarchical barriers between…

Keeping writing center records is perhaps the director's most dreaded chore, and it is often seen as a negative duty detracting from the more important business of helping tutors and student clients. However, research data that computers now make almost instantly available reveals surprisingly positive results and ways of presenting those results…

A study focused on teachers who have worked in computerized, networked writing classrooms at Purdue University (Indiana) for several year. Each of the subjects was a teaching assistant in the Purdue English Department, and the courses involved were upper division technical writing courses. Three theoretical approaches underpinned the study:…

Noting that teachers and students who actually use an educational innovation in a classroom setting recreate it, this paper analyzes the implementation of ENFI (Electronic Networks for Interaction), an innovation that uses computers and local area networks in the teaching of writing. The paper presents ENFI's idealization in terms of its…

Describes how using conferencing software in a computer-assisted writing environment became a catalyst for a distinctive learning ecology that interrelated prosocial student behaviors, learner-centered teaching, and assessment. Argues that the conferencing class not only helped students apply critical thinking and problem-solving skills in…

Part of a larger ethnographic study, this investigation focused on the literacy development of a college student as he participated in the virtual culture of a computer-networked writing classroom where all instruction and communication occurred through the computer. The student was a member of one of two classes of adult students, ranging in age…

Describes a research project in which elementary students with learning disabilities participate in both individual and cooperative computer-enhanced writing sessions, using three types of topics: free choice, literature based, and fantasy based. Finds the computer-enhanced whole-language writing sessions more instructionally effective than the…

A study examined the effect of a computer network which was designed to create a functional learning environment to engage students in writing as a communicative act with a real audience. Subjects, 44 seventh-grade Israeli students, wrote an essay as part of their regular midterm examination and, a week later, wrote another essay for their peers,…