In this paper, we describe an n-gram approach to automatically assess essay quality in student writing. Underlying this approach is the development of n-gram indices that examine rhetorical, syntactic, grammatical, and cohesion features of paragraph types (introduction, body, and conclusion paragraphs) and entire essays. For this study, we developed over 300 n-gram indices and assessed their po...

The clinical case report is a popular genre in medical writing. While authors and editors have debated the justification for the clinical case report, few have attempted to examine the long history of this genre in medical literature. By reviewing selected literature and presenting and discussing excerpts of clinical case reports from Egyptian antiquity to the 20th century, we illustrate the pr...

This study investigates the roles of cohesion and coherence in evaluations of essay quality. Cohesion generally has a facilitative effect on text comprehension and is assumed to be related to essay coherence. By contrast, recent studies of essay writing have demonstrated that computational indices of cohesion are not predictive of evaluations of writing quality. This study investigates expert r...

Networked computer technology has become prevalent in higher education but little research has been conducted to attest to its benefits for the ESL student writer. This study compared students in two ESL writing environments; a networked computer-assisted classroom and a traditional oral classroom. Three measures were used to examine attitudes towards writing with computers, writing apprehensio...

Cuiqin Xu, Nanjing University Yanren Ding, Nanjing University The advance of computer input log and screen-recording programs over the last two decades has greatly facilitated research into the writing process in real time. Using Inputlog 4.0 and Camtasia 6.0 to record the writing process of 24 Chinese EFL writers in an argumentative task, this study explored L2 writers’ pausing patterns in com...