R. Oliver et T. Kerr, THE IMPACT OF WORD-PROCESSING ON THE PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION OF WRITTEN ESSAYS IN A TERTIARY COURSE OF STUDY, Higher education, 26(2), 1993, pp. 217-226
This study investigated whether the use of word processing in the crea
tion and submission of written essays by tertiary students, resulted i
n the achievement of higher grades compared with conventional methods.
The study was conducted among 240 student teachers in the first year
of a degree course and studying a pre-service unit in teacher educatio
n. Students' marks in an essay were gathered along with details of the
submission method used; word processed, typed or hand-written. Initia
l statistical tests showed that students who used word processing as a
method for essay submission scored significantly higher essay marks t
hat students whose essays were typed or hand-written. Further tests, h
owever, revealed than it was the level of revision carried out rather
than the submission method that accounted for the differences in achie
ved scores.