Date of Award

1-1-2000

Thesis Type

Masters

Document Type

Thesis

Divisions

Faculty of Education

Department

-

Institution

Universiti Malaya

Abstract

This case study sought to investigate whether the word processor had any discernible influence on the writing behaviour of one secondary school student and whether the use of the word processor had any effects on the quality of essays written. The subject wrote six argumentative essays, alternating between the conventional pen-and-paper and the word processor. Techniques of data collection included direct observations of the subject's writing behaviour and semi-structured interviews held immediately after each writing session. Her pen-and-paper writing behaviour and her computer-writing behaviour were coded, analysed and then compared for differences. Essays written with the pen-and-paper and the word processor were analysed and compared in terms of productivity (writing output), complexity (syntactic complexity) and precision (grammatical and mechanical accuracy). These essays were further assessed on a 5-point holistic scale by two independent raters. A synthesis of results gathered through the direct observations. semi-structured interviews, text analyses and subject's responses to questions in a post-writing questionnaire showed that the word processor had influenced the subject's writing behaviour and contributed to the more superior quality of the essays. Finally, the most important pedagogical implication of the study is that, teaching strategies uniquely suited to writing with word processors need to be integrated with writing instruction in order to maximise the use of computer technology to improve students' writing.

Initial

snms

Additional Information

Dissertation (M.A) -- Faculty of Education, Universiti Malaya, 2000.

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