Arnold, V., Legas, J., Obler, S., Pacheco, M. A., Russell, C., & Umbdenstock, L. (1990). Do students get higher scores on their word-processed papers? A study of bias in scoring hand-written vs. word-processed papers (pp. 1–33). Rio Hondo College. http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/24/0e/0d.pdf

Report

Arnold, V., Legas, J., Obler, S., Pacheco, M. A., Russell, C., & Umbdenstock, L. (1990). Do students get higher scores on their word-processed papers? A study of bias in scoring hand-written vs. word-processed papers (pp. 1–33). Rio Hondo College. http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/24/0e/0d.pdf

Notes

Research report from Rio Hondo College, Whittier, California. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 345 818)

Tags

No disability; Postsecondary; Spelling checker; Word processing (for writing); Writing

URL

http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/24/0e/0d.pdf

Summary

Accommodation

Raters judged the writing quality of both handwritten and word-processed essays along with spell-checker tool. [The 300 handwritten essays were then word processed to prevent bias before comparison.]

Participants

Postsecondary students, who had taken a placement exam and final exam consisting of a writing sample, participated.

Dependent Variable

A holistic score was given to each paper, ranging from 1 to 6. Raters and students completed surveys about attitudes and judgments.

Findings

Handwritten papers were rated lower than word processed papers. Long papers composed by a word processor were rated significantly higher. Raters preferred to read handwritten papers. Students wrote by hand because of typing skill difficulties or word processed because of editing features.