Initial effects of word processing on writing quality and writing anxiety of freshman writers

✍ Scribed by Teichman, Milton ;Poris, Marilyn

• Book ID: 104640855
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 871 KB
• Volume: 23
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0010-4817
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00144729

✦ Synopsis

Eight English instructors at Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New York, conducted a one-semester controlled experiment with freshman in eight randomly selected classes of "College Writing" to learn about the initial effects of word processing on essay-writing performance and on writing apprehension. Four classes wrote essays using terminals linked to a mainframe computer (Experimental Group), and four classes wrote essays in the traditional mode using pens, pencils or typewriters (Control Group). The eight instructors agreed upon a common syllabus and common teaching approaches for the freshman writing course. To measure writing performance, they devised an analytic scale. To measure writing apprehension, they used a writing apprehension test developed by Daly and Miller. The Experimental Group showed greater progress than the Control Group from the pre to post Essay Test but could not demonstrate superior performance on the six required essays of the course. For writing apprehension, there was no significant difference between the two groups.