WILL THEY THINK LESS OF MY HANDWRITTEN ESSAY IF OTHERS WORD PROCESS THEIRS - EFFECTS ON ESSAY SCORES OF INTERMINGLING HANDWRITTEN AND WORD-PROCESSED ESSAYS

A study was undertaken to determine the effects on essay scores of int ermingling handwritten and word-processed versions of student essays. A sample of examinees, each of whom had produced both a handwritten an d a word-processed essay, was drawn from a larger sample of students w ho had participated in a pilot study of a new academic skills assessme nt battery. Students' original handwritten essays were converted to wo rd-processed versions, and their original word-processed essays were c onverted to handwritten versions. Analyses revealed higher average sco res for essays scored in the handwritten mode than for essays scored a s word processed, regardless of the mode in which essays were original ly produced. Several hypotheses were advanced to explain the discrepan cies between scores on handwritten and word-processed essays. The trai ning of essay readers was subsequently modified on the basis of these hypotheses, and the experiment was repeated using the modified trainin g with a new set of readers.