Bib #5

Computers and Composition 91-94

Computer-Based Writing Tools and the Cognitive Needs of Novice Writers

Robert B. Kozma
Computers and Composition 8(2), April 1991, pages 31-45

“Novice writers, given their cognitive needs, are likely to benefit from features that go beyond those in standard word-processing programs, features that correspond more directly to cognitive components of the composing process. Software designed with functions that model or that prompt the developing cognitive skills of novice writers maybe more likely to scaffold their writing processes and improve their written compositions. Novices may benefit most from software that assists in the formulation of rhetorical goals and strategies, aids the recall and organization of topical knowledge, assists in the translation of goals and knowledge into text, and prompts the revision of plans as well as text.”

Ambiguity and Confusion in Word-Processing Research

Joel Nydahl

Computers and Composition 8(3), August 1991, pages 21-37

The discipline may have “jumped the gun” on the benefits of word processing in the classroom. A closer examination both qualitative and quantitative is needed.

Computerized Invention for Composing: An Update and Review
Wallis May Andersen
Computers and Composition 9(1), November 1991, pages 25-38

An update on computer software for invention with a consideration for hypertext.

Selecting Computer Software for Writing Instruction: Some Considerations

William Condon
9(1), November 1992, pages 53-56

“I can say that several factors make choosing software today just as difficult as in the days when selecting software for Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI) simply meant choosing which drill-and-practice set to inflict on hapless students (or choosing, even better, not to inflict any of them on students).”

“Ease of use--transparency, in computer terminology--means that teachers can devote less time to teaching computer skills and more time to teaching writing, and it means that students spend less time being frustrated by the technology and more time exploring its capabilities and benefits. In general, if students cannot master the basics of an application upon first using it and become familiar with most of its functions within a week, then it is probably too difficult to use in a writing class. Exceptions to this rule should occur only when the program delivers especially valuable, unique capabilities.”

Behaviors, attitudes, and outcomes: A study of word processing and writing quality among experienced word-processing students
Mike Markel
Computers and Composition Vol. 11 No. 1 1994 pp. 49-58

This article reports on the relationships among computer experience, attitudes, writing behaviors, and writing quality for advanced undergraduate students who have owned Macintosh computers for at least 3 years. Students who routinely use the Macintosh use it aggressively, have positive attitudes about using it, and believe that it improves their writing. Attitudes toward writing with the Macintosh correlate with students' outcomes on two controlled writing tasks: one using the Macintosh and one using traditional writing methods. Students who like the Macintosh tend to do well on in-class writing assignments using either method; those who do not tend to do poorly using either method. These findings suggest that writing attitudes and practices are fairly well ingrained for the less competent writers, and that they need to become comfortable with the computer to experience the improved attitudes that the computer users report. If less competent writers have a more positive experience toward writing, they are likely to write more, and this, in itself, might be the most direct path to improved quality.

Macintosh versus IBM in composition instruction: Does a significant difference exist?
Tony Dierckins
Computers and Composition Vol. 11 No. 2 1994 pp. 151-164

This article reports the results of a study replicating Halio's (1990) study in which she criticized Macintosh's graphical user interface as having a negative affect on writers. The present study examines writing of students using Macintoshes in comparison to those using IBM-compatibles in writing argumentative and research papers. Analysis indicates that differences are not large enough to justify claims that the use of graphical user interface (GUI) affects writing skills of users. Further, the author suggests that rapid changes in technology may make measurements of the microcomputer's influence on student writing outdated as it is reported and the issue moot.

Word processing and the ongoing difficulty of writing
Carolyn Dowling
Computers and Composition Vol. 11 No. 3 1994 pp. 227-235

Although the benefits of word processing are widely acknowledged, writing is nevertheless still perceived as an activity fraught with difficulty. It is becoming increasingly apparent that significant differences exist between traditional forms of writing and the experience of creating text on a screen. Some of these differences relate to physical characteristics of the computer, though others appear more subtly consequent upon what might be termed the “psychological” dimension of the relationship among computer, user, and text. It is interesting to consider the degree to which particular features of word processing as a medium might constitute new and significant impediments to individual writers. This issue is explored in relation to discussions held with a number of writers who had expressed concern that their expectations regarding the benefits of word processing were not being fulfilled.

JAC 91-94

Writing Space: The Computer, Hypertext, and the History of Writing by Jay David Bolter
Reviewed by Douglas Hesse
Book Review
JAC Issue 12.2  1992

Word Perfect: Literacy in the Computer Age by Myron C. Tuman
Reviewed by Joel Nydahl
Book Review
JAC 13.2  1993

Control and the Cyborg: Writing and Being Written in Hypertext
Johndan Johnson-Eilola
JAC 13.2  1993

Finding Voice through Computer Communication: A New Venue for Collaboration
by Marion H. Fey
JAC 14.1 1994

More about distance writing with computers and opening up lines of communication while encouraging unique writing voices.

The Metaphor of Collage: Beyond Computer Composition
by Russel Wiebe and Robert S. Dornsife, Jr.
JAC 15.1 1995

College English 92-94

The Case for Hyper-Gradesheets: A Modest Proposal
Patricia Harkin, James Sosnoski
College English pp. 22-30 Vol. 54 No. 1 1992
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/377556

Reviews: 

Computers and English: What Do We Make of Each Other? 
Reviewed: Computers and Community  by Carolyn Handa; Computers and Writing: Theory, Research, Practice  by Deborah H. Holdstein; Cynthia L. Selfe; Mindweave  by Robin Mason; Anthony Kaye
Review by: Charles Moran
College English pp. 193-198 Vol. 54 No. 2 1992

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/377584

From Book to Screen: Four Recent Studies
Reviewed: Writing Space: The Computer, Hypertext, and the History of Writing  by Jay David Bolter; Disappearing through the Skylight: Culture and Technology in the Twentieth Century  by O. B. Hardison, Jr.; The Death of Literature  by Alvin Kernan; Teletheory: Grammatology in the Age of Video  by Gregory Ulmer
Review by: Richard A. Lanham
College English Vol. 54 pp. 199-206 Vol. 54 No. 2 1992

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/377585

Computer Perspectives: Mapping New Territories
Reviewed: Hypermedia and Literary Studies  by Paul Delany; George P. Landow; Critical Perspectives on Computers and Composition Instruction  by Gail E. Hawisher; Cynthia L. Selfe; Evolving Perspectives on Computers and Composition Studies: Questions for the 1990s  by Gail E. Hawisher; Cynthia L. Selfe
Review by: Helen J. Schwartz
College English Vol. 54 pp. 207-212 Vol. 54 No. 2 1992

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/377586

IBM, Talking Heads, and Our Classrooms
Frank T. Boyle
College English Vol. 55 No. 6 1993 pp. 618-626

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/378698             

                                         

Electronic Mail and the Writing Instructor 
Gail E. Hawisher, Charles Moran
College English Vol. 55 No. 6 1993 pp. 627-643

Hawisher and Moran call for a closer examination of e-mail as a composition tool and reveal the gap within the discipline.  Hawisher and Moran cite the commentary on email prevalent in other disciplines as well as our own discipline’s historical reception of computers as the impetus for their article.

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/378699

Written Communication 92-94

Cynthia Greenleaf

Technological Indeterminacy: The Role of Classroom Writing Practices and Pedagogy in Shaping Student Use of the Computer
Written Communication January 1994 11: 85-130

This study proceeds from the assumption that computers do not function as independent variables in classrooms, but rather as part of a complex network of social and pedagogical interactions. It examines the integration of computers into the writing practices of a remedial English class in an urban high school. Computers and word processors were introduced midway into the school year. The class was observed and recorded daily throughout the academic year, and all written work was collected. Six students were selected for in-depth focus as they carried out writing tasks. Analysis focuses on how classroom writing practices were structured and carried out and how students participated in writing tasks before and after the computers arrived. Although many changes accompanied the use of computers, the study concludes that the teacher's structuring of writing instruction had the greatest impact on both student writing and the ways computers entered into that writing.

College Composition and Communication 92-94

(NOTE: Vol. 43 No. 2 : Another review of Bolter’s text)

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The Shape of Text to Come: The Texture of Print on Screens
Stephen A. Bernhardt
College Composition and Communication , Vol. 44, No. 2 (May, 1993), pp. 151-175

Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/358836

Bernhardt calls attention to how text is changing and how it is viewed. Bernhardt suggests there is an “inappropriate” way in which the history of text on paper can be applied to the “new” (electronic) medium.  The article cites work already done on representative text by scholars in the field (notably Bolter).

REVIEW:

Theorizing Technology While Courting Credibility: Emerging Rhetorics in CAI Scholarship

Reviewed: The Writing Space: The Computer, Hypertext and the History of Writing  by Jay David Bolter; The Electronic Word: Democracy, Technology, and the Arts  by Richard A. Lanham; Writing Teachers Writing Software: Creating Our Place in the Electronic Age  by Paul LeBlanc; Literacy Online: The Promise (And Peril) of Reading and Writing with Computers  by Myron C. Tuman
Review by: Joseph Janangelo
College Composition and Communication Vol. 45 No. 4 1994 pp. 535-547

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/358764

The Politics of the Interface: Power and Its Exercise in Electronic Contact Zones 
Cynthia L. Selfe, Richard J. Selfe, Jr.
College Composition and Communication Vol. 45 No. 4 1994 pp. 480-504

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/358761

An early discussion of the computer interface as a space to negotiate around political borderlands – where students are not marginalized or oppressed based on race, class, gender, etc.  However, Selfe and Selfe note that these devices which we, for the past decade, have thought to erase political and ideological boundaries, are still defining and propagating them. The authors cite the example of minority classrooms using computers for basic “skill and drill” instruction while majority classrooms use computers for “higher order” creative and cognitive literacy skills.

TCQ 92-94

Using desktop publishing in an editing class—the lessons learned and students' assessments
Marty Tharp & Don Zimmerman
Technical Communication Quarterly pp. 77-92 Vol. 1 No. 2 1992

This article—based on personal observations, a survey, and modified Nominal Group Techniques—reports students' perceptions of learning desktop publishing systems (DTP). Students learned the foundations of DTP in less than 60 hours of hands‐on experience; the incremental introduction of DTP functions and practice sessions before the assignments were more effective than alternative teaching strategies tried; and the use of DTP encouraged non‐artistic students to use artwork to enhance their publications.

Hypertext and collaboration: Observations on Edward Barrett's philosophy
Chet Hedden
Technical Communication Quarterly pp. 27-41 Vol. 1 No. 4 1992

In a departure from the view that characterizes hypertext as a new writing paradigm based on old associationist ideas, Edward Barrett has proposed a model for hypertext that rejects cognitive and associationist language as both unnecessary and inaccurate. In this view, knowledge, reality, and even facts are community generated, “linguistic entities,” and hypertext supports the “social interface” rather than the “deep structure” of thought. This essay considers some of the premises of Barrett's proposal. A central issue is the rejection of the “authorial imperative” of structured information in favor of a view of writing as an open‐ended ever‐changing conversation in which readers and writers collaborate to discover—or generate—reality.

Network collaboration with UNIX

Dennis Horn

Technical Communication Quarterly pp. 413-429 Vol. 2 Issue 4. 1993

Recent advances in computer technology make networking an essential skill for the technical communicator. Particularly, the development of local, national, and international computer networks has created a collaborative writing environment. At the heart of the Internet network is the UNIX operating system. The open architecture of UNIX makes it a superior tool for collaborative writing, in the classroom, across the campus, or internationally. Central to the open system is UNIX's mode of allowing users to set file access permissions, restricting some files while allowing others to be open to the public.

Beyond skill building: Challenges facing technical communication teachers in the computer age
Stuart A. Selber
Technical Communication Quarterly pp. 365-390 Vol. 3. Issue 4 1994

By examining computer‐related courses and faculty rationales for offering such courses, this article broadly examines how and why we commonly use computers in technical communication classrooms, and in what ways our current instruction may or may not move beyond skill building to include literacy and humanistic issues. It then broadly outlines three pedagogical challenges that lie ahead as we use computer technologies to support our teaching efforts over this decade and during the next century.