Study: Program Helps Middle, High School Students Improve Writing

Study: Program Helps Middle, High School Students Improve Writing

Results from a Turnitin pilot study on Revision Assistant’s effectiveness have been released.

Revision Assistant is an instructional writing tool for middle and high schools giving feedback in the form of Signal Checks to students while they write. The spring 2015 pilot test evaluated Revision Assistant’s effectiveness in inspiring students to write, revise and improve their essays. In all, more than 3,400 students and 164 teachers from 18 schools participated in the pilot. A summary of the results found:

● On average, middle school students wrote eleven drafts before submitting their final essay and 93 percent revised at least one time.

● On average, high school students wrote seven drafts before submitting their final essay and 94.4 percent revised at least one time.

● Essays of middle school students initially averaging 178 words grew to 262 words after using Revision Assistant.

● Based on a trait-based, 1-4 rubric scale comprised of four genre-specific traits, initial average signal checks for middle school students before using Revision Assistant was 2.02 which increased to 2.48 by the fifth draft; and then 2.99 by the final submission.

To learn more, visit https://youtu.be/vyzt1TvVWHo.