The Effects of Word Processing on Students' Writing Quality and Revision Strategies

This study examines the influence of word processing on the writing quality and revision strategies of eighth-grade students who were experienced computer users. Students were asked to compose two expository papers on similar topics, one paper using the computer and the other by hand, in a counterbalanced repeated measures research design. When students were writing on the computer, "electronic videos'' were taken of a subsample of students using an unobtrusive screen-recording software utility that provided running accounts of all actions taken on the computer. Papers written on computer were rated significantly higher by trained raters on all four dimensions of a holistic /analytic writing assessment scale. Analysis of the screen recording data revealed that students were more apt to make microstructural rather than macrostructural changes to their work and that they continuously revised at all stages of their writing (although most revision took place at the initial drafting stage). While the reason for the higher ratings of the computer-written papers was not entirely clear, student experience in writing with computers and the facilitative environment provided by the computer graphical interface were considered to be mediating factors.