Using Computer-Generated Protocols to Study Writers' Planning Strategies

Abstract : Research has shown that extensive planning is typical of skilled adult writer. Yet word processors tend to discourage high level planning. In this research, we used the Writing Environment, a computer-based authoring tool that encourages planning, to study the strategies of adult writers. Nine graduate students and eight technical writers used the Writing Environment to write technical reports, while the computer recorded their activities. Analysis of computer-generated protocols revealed that subjects spent a large proportion of their time on the organizational structures for their reports and that these structures were quite elaborate. Subjects varied widely in the extent to which they completed their plans before they wrote. Surprisingly, the overall quality of the reports, as rated by two judges, was negatively related to time spent planning. Some writers apparently spent too much time on complex organizational structures and too little time composing text.

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