“It can really promote writing across the curriculum and empower teachers who may not necessarily be writing teachers,” Friend said. “It helps teachers other than English teachers become more comfortable scoring student’s writing.”
The personal corrections that Writing Reviser offers can give students the boost the need to build small successes with their writing skills.
“[Students] want to be better at writing, and I think writing is just a very intimidating skill for a lot of students,” Higgins said. “They originally don’t have any confidence, and seeing that this program really helps them strengthen their writing makes them proud of what they’ve done, and they see the benefits of it.”
Feedback for learners of all levels
Writing Reviser, which is geared toward students in grades 8-12, isn’t the only software program to help students develop their writing skills.
CTB McGraw-Hill’s Writing Roadmap is an online essay-scoring tool available for students in grades 3-12, as well as college students and adult learners. It provides automatic feedback based on the continual writing practice offered. Its goal is to help prepare students for state and national assessments, with writing prompts in four styles: narrative, informative/expositor, descriptive, or persuasive. All materials are delivered online through an easy-to use interface.
The nonprofit Educational Testing Service (ETS), which develops and administers the SAT and Advanced Placement exams, offers a web-based writing evaluation service called Criterion. Like the other programs, it’s based on artificial intelligence that evaluates a student’s writing skills and within seconds provides diagnostic feedback and a holistic score. Students in K-12 schools and colleges use the Criterion service to plan, write, and revise essays using free online planning templates and writer’s handbooks, ETS says. The technology behind Criterion is called the e-Rater Scoring Engine.
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