Have it your way and mine: The theory of styles

Olsen is right to note what can be done with a good theory and the right machine. His particular theory, however, is not transferable to literary studies. If we need a new model, I would suggest that cognitive science can provide a few interesting ones. I have begun to do some work based on David Marr's VISION, in which he hypothesizes two levels of processing within the visual module. My speculation has been on the parallel existence of distinguishable levels of conceptual or language organization which would correspond to the viewer and object centered perspectives Marr describes for vision. I propose to explore the possibility that we may find here the model for the existence of stylistic individualism within overarching historical stylistic generalizations, and even more, that this may be what feminists are searching for when they try to resist being coopted by the masculine language of objectivity. Ellen Spolsky teaches English literature and literary theory and is the Director of the Lechter Institute for Literary Research at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. Her latest book is Gaps in Nature: Literary Interpretation and the Modular Mind(SUNY Press, 1993).     

Computers and Composition 20/20: A Conversation Piece, or What Some Very Smart People Have to Say about the Future

At the 2011 Computers and Writing Conference, Town Hall speakers were asked to envision the future. This piece extends that conversation, with contributors presenting a range of ideas, often looking backward at our history before gazing into their crystal balls to envision what the future might bring. The pieces included here discuss writing, teaching writing, writing assessment, publishing, robotics, mobility, and other aspects of the field loosely termed computers and composition as it was, is, or may come to be in what we hope will be only the start of an ongoing conversation.     

Sexualities, technologies, and the teaching of writing: A critical overview

In this introduction to a special issue of Computers and Composition, the authors critically review current literature on computer-assisted writing pedagogies that grapple with issues of sexuality. Although this body of work is small, it points to provocative ways to develop our students’ critical and rhetorical sensibilities about the constructions of sexuality in our culture. Further, such work innovatively addresses the place of networked communication technologies in the interrogation of such constructions. The authors conclude with both an introduction of the work in this special issue that addresses the intersection of sexuality studies and computer-assisted writing studies and with a call for additional work in this field.     

Electronic outlining as a writing strategy: Effects on students' writing products,mental effort and writing process

This study addresses to what extent and how electronic outlining enhances students' writing performance. To this end, the focus of this study is not only on students' final writing products but also on the organisation of the writing process (i.e., planning, translating, and reviewing) and perceived mental effort during writing. In addition, effects of repeated electronic outlining were examined. A combined within and between subjects design was implemented in which 93 10th-grade students wrote two argumentative texts with or without using electronic outlining. Analyses showed that using electronic outlining for planning and writing significantly improved the presentation of the argumentative structure. However, effects were less clear for correctly and completely establishing a text structure and no effects were found on the elaboration of students' argumentation. Process data showed that electronic outlining increased total process time, but no effect was found on students' overall planning and revision activities. Finally, self-reports showed no effect of electronic outlining on students' perceived mental effort. Nevertheless, repeated use of the same writing strategy enhanced writing fluency.     

How the views of faculty can inform undergraduate Web-based research: Implications for academic writing

The steady increase in the use of Web sites as sources in undergraduate research-based papers has raised concerns about the suitability of these reference materials for citation and about the ability of undergraduates to distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate sources in academic writing. While informal means of evaluating Web sites are in existence, there is a need for Web-source assessment criteria that not only focus on the use of these particular sources in introductory undergraduate writing programs but also closely match the requirements of faculty within a specific academic field. This paper identifies elements of a prototypical rating instrument for students in Humanities courses based on the results of a three-part survey of faculty members in a Humanities Department (N = 31) and highlights the divergence between criteria that faculty found crucial and those that many undergraduate students appear to be using in their Web-based research.     

Writing with speech recognition: The adaptation process of professional writers with and without dictating experience

This paper describes the adaptation and writing process of writers who have started using speech recognition systems for writing business texts. The writers differ in their previous writing experience. They either have previous classical dictating experience or they are used to writing their texts with a word processor. To gather the process data for this study we chose complementary research methods. First the participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire and given instruction about the speech recognition system. Then they were observed five times using the speech recognition system during their day-to-day work. Finally, they also filled in a logging questionnaire after each task.

The quantitative analysis of the use of the writing mode shows that those participants who had no previous dictating experience, tend to use the voice input more extensively, both for formulating and reviewing. This result is confirmed in the more detailed case analysis. The other analyses in the case study—i.e. repair, revision, and pause analysis-refine the differences in the organization of the writing process between the writers, and show that the speech recognition mode seems to create a writing environment that is open for different writing profiles.     

Computer-based reading and writing across the curriculum: Two case studies of L2 writers

Since the early 1980s, second language (L2) writing specialists have been examining possible roles for computers in L2 writing instruction. How, and to what extent, L2 students use computer for academic literacy purposes beyond the writing classroom, that is, across the curriculum, has not received much attention. Because a common goal of L2 college level writing courses is to prepare students to write in these other domains, an awareness of computer-based literacy activities in non-L2 writing courses is essential to the cause of helping L2 writing instructors connect what students learn in their courses to how they write (and read) in other courses. This paper describes research aimed at contributing to such awareness: a qualitative study of the computer-based reading and writing activity of two undergraduate English as a Second Language (ESL) students beyond ESL writing courses.     

从教育学习理论看CAI课件写作

行为主义、认知主义、建构主义都曾经指导了CAI课件写作。情境认知与学习理论继承并发展了其他教育学习理论对CAI课件写作的指导,认为:CAI课件中知识的意义不能脱离具体的情境产生。真实性是创设情境的前提,情境创设应符合现实生活场景和事物运动的客观规律,情境性教学应作为CAI课件写作的最重要目标进行设计,要因人、因时、因地而异。此外,情境创设还必须保持情境的知识性、科学性、思想性和趣味性的统一。通过教育学习理论指导CAI课件写作,使CAI课件更符合教育规律,能够更好地服务于教学活动和学习活动。     

Why technology matters to writing: A cyberwriter’s tale

Technology does indeed matter to writing—and in significant ways. But how it matters can vary, depending on the particular technology, the habits and attitudes of the individual writer, and the context of learning and use. Here I employ a personal narrative (“a cyberwriter’s tale”) to track my development as a writer over time—from handwriting to typewriting to cyberwriting—and to show how each new writing technology influenced my practices and products. I argue finally for a cyborgian, posthumanist view of writing technologies. Such a view does not isolate the technological tool as an abstracted machine apart from human use, but insists on defining technology as use—as the human and machine working in concert (joined at the interface) and writing in a particular social, political, and rhetorical context.     

Confidence and competition online: ESL student perspectives on web-based discussions in the classroom

English as a Second Language (ESL) students bring a diverse array of perspectives on language learning that inform how they negotiate different kinds of spaces in the university writing classroom. This study addresses the variance in how three different ESL students participated in web-based discussion boards and chat rooms in their first-year university writing course. Documenting students’ perceptions of technology provided pedagogical insight into how students took up or dismissed particular kinds of web-based writing. This study found that individual students made choices in their web-based writing in ways that reflected their previous experiences with technology and writing, their views of themselves as students and writers, and their relative comfort level with their peers in the classroom. However, their choices were also constrained by the pedagogical structure of the course, including the centrality of the instructor and the institutional directive for individualized assessment.     

Using track changes and word processor to provide corrective feedback to learners in writing

This study investigated the effect of computer‐mediated corrective feedback types in an English as a foreign language (EFL) intact class over time. The participants were 64 English majors who were assigned randomly into three treatment conditions that gave and received computer‐mediated corrective feedback while writing (track changes, word processor, and track changes and word processor) and one control group that neither gave nor received writing corrective feedback. Students sat to a pre‐test (week 1), immediate post‐test (week 8) and delayed post‐test (week 12) in writing. Results showed decrease in mean error and mean feedback in students' writing performance related to correcting 11 major error types on immediate and delayed post‐tests, indicating that there was a significant effect for feedback type in favour of the group that used a combination of track changes and word processor. There was also a significant effect for the computer‐mediated corrective feedback over the control group. Moreover, results showed that both mean error and mean feedback decreased significantly from pre‐test to post‐test (week 1–week 8), indicating that overall, there was a significant change over time.     

How do Experts Adapt their Explanations to a Layperson’s Knowledge in Asynchronous Communication? An Experimental Study

Despite a plethora of recommendations for personalization techniques, such approaches often lack empirical justification and their benefits to users remain obscure. The study described in this paper takes a step towards filling this gap by introducing an evidence-based approach for deriving adaptive interaction techniques. In a dialogue experiment with 36 dyads of computer experts and laypersons, we observed how experts tailored their written explanations to laypersons’ communicational needs. To support adaptation, the experts in the experimental condition were provided with information about the layperson’s knowledge level. In the control condition, the experts had no available information. During the composition of their answers, the experts in both conditions articulated their planning activities. Compared with the control condition, the experts in the experimental condition made a greater attempt to form a mental model about the layperson’s knowledge. As a result, they varied the type and proportion of the information they provided depending on the layperson’s individual knowledge level. Accordingly, such adaptive explanations helped laypersons reduce comprehension breakdowns and acquire new knowledge. These results provide evidence for theoretical assumptions regarding cognitive processes in text production and conversation. They empirically ground and advance techniques for adaptation of content in adaptive hypermedia systems. They are suggestive of ways in which explanations in recommender and decision support systems could be effectively adapted to the user’s knowledge background and goals.     

Second language writing research and pedagogy: A role for computer logging?

This paper considers the use of keystroke logging software to investigate how writers interact with the task of writing on the computer. The research focuses on second and foreign language writing, drawing on studies from a variety of contexts from school to university, involving both academic and communicative tasks. The observation of writing through this means of data capture allows access to a mass of detailed information about a range of aspects of the planning, formulating, and revising processes of individual writers. It prompts investigation, at one level, of the writer's interaction with the computer itself during the writing event. The interaction may be further investigated in terms of both social and discoursal dimensions as the writer grapples with topic, audience, genre, social and cultural constraints, as well as language.The interactivity of the logging tool offers researchers the opportunity to explore not only the actions that writers take but also the conscious strategies they employ as they compose. Replaying the writing session with writers, that is, using stimulated recall, reveals insights into the writers’ perceived attention and strategies to address such issues as content, discourse organization, language and metacognitive concerns.There is considerable overlap between the use of this software from a research perspective and its potential as a pedagogic tool. The application of computer logging and stimulated recall in the classroom is presented as a means of promoting self-assessment, metacognitive awareness, and learner autonomy among second language writers.     

Toward a Complexity of Online Learning: Learners in Online First-Year Writing

In response to the growing presence of online first-year writing courses, this paper describes a case study of two online first-year writing courses and addresses the questions: What do students in an online first-year writing course perceive as good study habits, and what helps them succeed? Data includes surveys, online discussions, course management statistics, and selected interviews. The study is supported by social cognitive theory described by psychologist Albert Bandura; this methodology allows for examination of internal, external, and behavioral characteristics of participating students. Results of the study indicate that students who rated themselves as making good use of study time also succeeded in the course. Insights from students include information about study activities, management of study time, access to technology, and attitudes about online courses. A surprising result of the study was that students did not consider communication with peers as a productive study activity, despite a deliberate attempt by instructors to build peer interaction into the course. Yet students also reported high levels of engagement and positive attitudes about online learning. The social cognitive lens provides helpful insights about these complex findings by examining the external, internal, and behavioral aspects of online first-year writing students in this study.     

Computers,management and organization: Reflections on a pilot study

Results are presented of a pilot study dealing with the interaction between computers, management, and organization structures: a study carried out to explore the computerization phenomenon in a small sample of manufacturing firms. A short survey of the literature introduces the perspectives and objectives of the field study. Two main research outcomes are presented. Firstly, a theoretical scheme of analysis, based on the control system of administrative processes, is considered as a means of evaluating computer impact on the organization. Secondly, a set of specific hypotheses is introduced in order to analyse the empirical data.The following interactions between computers and organizational structures have been examined (while considering the firm as an open socio-technical system): technology and environment, organizational structure, automatized applications, and the computerization process.     

Fuzzy set theory applications in production management research: a literature survey

Fuzzy set theory has been used to model systems that are hard to define precisely. As a methodology, fuzzy set theory incorporates imprecision and subjectivity into the model formulation and solution process. Fuzzy set theory represents an attractive tool to aid research in production management when the dynamics of the production environment limit the specification of model objectives, constraints and the precise measurement of model parameters. This paper provides a survey of the application of fuzzy set theory in production management research. The literature review that we compiled consists of 73 journal articles and nine books. A classification scheme for fuzzy applications in production management research is defined. We also identify selected bibliographies on fuzzy sets and applications.     

Electronic literacy, critical pedagogy, and collaboration: A case for cyborg writing

This study concerns the convergence of electronic literacy, collaboration, and critical pedagogy in the classroom. I argue that teachers in the humanities must relinquish the vestiges of non-electronic criteria in their assessments of electronic literacy. Instead, the interplay of human and technological factors in the classroom leads to a reaffirmation of literacy as a social process. The radical democratization and multivocality of the corporate or collaboratively-written text demands a critical problematizing of our roles and actions as teacher-readers. The viability of static criteria for good literacy practices vanishes with electronic literacy. Feminist cyborg theory offers a useful paradigm for understanding the corporate text by bridging theories of electronic literacy and theories of collaborative learning. The cyborg is a dynamic techno-fusion of difference and contradiction: much like the corporate text. A cyborgian perspective reaffirms the polyvocalic, instable nature of postmodern literacy and calls for contextual writing criteria.Carol L. Winkelmann, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. She teaches electronic literacy, linguistics, and seventeenth-century women's literacy. Winkelmann has written forLinguistics and Education, The Oxford Companion to the English Language, andThe Sixteenth Century Journal. Currently, she is writing about women's political language, violence, and social change education.     

Computerized writing and reading instruction for students in grades 4–9 with specific learning disabilities affecting written language

Computer scientists and educational researchers evaluated effectiveness of computerized instruction tailored to evidence‐based impairments in specific learning disabilities (SLDs) in students in grades 4–9 with persisting SLDs despite prior extra help. Following comprehensive, evidence‐based differential diagnosis for dysgraphia (impaired handwriting), dyslexia (impaired word reading and spelling), and oral and written language learning disability, students completed 18 sessions of computerized instruction over about 3 months. The 11 students taught letter formation with sequential, numbered, coloured arrow cues with full contours who wrote letters on lines added to iPAD screen showed more and stronger treatment effects than the 21 students taught using only visual motion cues for letter formation who wrote on an unlined computer monitor. Teaching to all levels of language in multiple functional language systems (by ear, eye, mouth and hand) close in time resulted in significant gains in reading and writing skills for the group and in diagnosed SLD hallmark impairments for individuals; also, performance on computerized learning activities correlated with treatment gains. Results are discussed in reference to need for both accommodations and explicit instruction for persisting SLDs and the potential for computers to teach handwriting, morphophonemic orthographies, comprehension and composition