Software! Can’t live with it….. Can’t live without it! Computer software is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computer what to do. Software has many functions in the computer world. There is currently computer software that helps students improve their writing and provides teachers with feedback of student progress. In the article Software helps students learn to revise their writing students learn to independently revise and edit their writing. Writing is such a difficult task for many students and I believe new advances with this current software will continue to help students improve. The author of the article, Jenna Zwang, discusses several curriculums that help students improve their writing skills. In the beginning of the article Zwang states that students who struggle with writing tend to fall behind in multiple disciplines (p.33). I agree with that statement because if students cannot successfully write an essay how can accurately answer short answer questions if they cannot write?
Zwang discusses several software programs that available in helping students improve their revision skills. One of the programs discussed in the article is Writing Reviser gives students feedback on areas they could improve (p.33). The program is designed to score students according to wordiness, overuse of prepositional phrases, or jargon aka fluff and puff (p.33). The feedback given to students is not negative it is all positive feedback. The software does not fix the problems for the students but it guides them in helping them see their mistakes as well as get them thinking about what they need to revise and how they can change/ make their writing better. The software is also beneficial for teachers. It allows teachers to see what students are making improvement as well as areas they need to continue working on. The Writing Reviser program was designed for students in grades 8th-12th but there are other software programs available to assist other students with their writing revisions. For students who have trouble organizing their thoughts there is also software available for them. The program Kurzweil 3000 is a reading, writing, test-taking, and learning tool for students who have learning difficulties (p.33). The software I discussed can help students improve the way they revise and editing their writing.
Attached to this post is a video I downloaded from you tube. This guy is signing a song about NOT revising. Although revising is very important, this song was funny and is a shout out to all the people who are against revising their work!
Article Citation:
Zwang, J. (2011). Software Helps Students Learn to Revise Their Work. eSchool News, Volume 14 Issue 7, p.33.
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