

"Always Already: Automated Essay Scoring and Grammar-Checkers in College Writing Courses"
In this essay, Carl Whithaus argues that computers are already involved in our students’ writing practice, as spell- and grammar-checkers are part of all word-processing programs. He argues that we should explore the potential of the computer as reader, rather than rejecting it out of hand. He describes one of these programs, Intelligent Essay Assessor, as it is being used to read short student essays, and he lays out the potential for the pedagogical uses of grammar-checking software.
Copyright © 2005 by Utah State University Press. Posted with permission. Whithaus, Carl. 2005. “Always Ready: Automated Essay Scoring and Grammar-Checkers in College Writing Courses.” In Machine Scoring of Student Essays: Truth and Consequences, edited by Patricia Freitag Ericsson and Richard Haswell, 166-176. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press.Open Chapt12_MachineScoring.pdf