This case study of seven community college students enrolled in a freshman composition course was designed to assess the influence of word processing on the compositions and composing strategies of inexperienced writers in primarily the teaching but also the testing contexts. The students' pre- and post-study performance on essay topics used in Florida's College-Level Academic Skills Test was juxtaposed with stylistic analyses of four expository essays written in a computer-based writing laboratory under the supervision of the instructor/researcher. Observations of the writing behaviors of "strong," "average," and "weak" writers were supplemented with data collected from structured interviews and an attitudinal survey to yield insights as to how microcomputer technology might be most effectively incorporated into the freshman composition curriculum. / All study subjects responded favorably to the use of word processing in the instructional context, regardless of their writing ability, previous experiences with English courses, or initial knowledge of computers or word processing. Using word processors did not affect the students' understanding of the writing process but was credited by them with stimulating text production and revision. / Stylistic analyses of interim and test essays produced fewer measurable gains for the "strong" writers than they did for the "average" and "weak" writers, whose posttest scores were markedly higher than their pre-test scores. "Average" and "weak" writers appeared to be more affected by a shift in writing context than were the "strong" writers across most of the features measured. / The study suggests that word processors have a positive influence on students' attitudes and writing behaviors and, when used in a laboratory setting, have powerful pedagogical implications. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-03, Section: A, page: 0448. / Major Professor: James Hoetker. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_76214 |
| Contributors | Barker, Ian Churchill., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 224 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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