Date of Award

7-1987

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Education

First Advisor

Gene Henderson

Second Advisor

Jeanne M. Donovan

Abstract

To Justify the expense and time Involved in teaching word processing to Junior high students, an attempt was made to demonstrate an educational benefit, the improvement of student writing. Two classes of eighth grade language arts students were instructed in writing using a computer word processing program, and three other classes wrote without computers. At the beginning and end of the unit, the students in both groups completed a writing assignment, which was evaluated by two different readers in order compare the of quality of writing.

The average posttest scores of students in both groups declined, and scores declined slightly more in the experimental group. A survey completed by the students indicated positive attitudes toward word processing. Therefore, although it was not possible to demonstrate a significant improvement in the quality of student writing after a ten-week period of instruction in word processing, the improvement in the students' willingness to write Indicates that the computer can be a valuable addition to the tools available for use In the teaching of writing .

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Education Commons

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