Chapter 2: Using Computers to Teach Writing 13 W 2 Using Computers to Teach Writing: Advantages and Disadvantages (original) (raw)

W 2 Using Computers to Teach Writing: Advantages and Disadvantages hen considering whether to introduce computers into the writing classroom, one question stands above the rest: do computers improve the writing of students? The answer, surprisingly, is that we don't know. Wolfe et al. report that "researchers do not agree about the effects of using word processors on the quality of student writing" (270). Owston, Murphy, and Wideman inform us that "the results to date have been equivocal" (251). Joram et al. tell us that, in regard to the accepted belief that computers facilitate revision, "there is little research that directly tests this claim" (168). Collier and Werier find that "research on the qualitative changes effected in writing by word-processing systems have been either contradictory or inconclusive . . . for all population samples-experienced professional and academic writers, as well as several categories of inexperienced writers" (47).

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