Assistant Professor of English
Drexel University
Scott Warnock
Assistant Professor of English
Drexel University
For writing scholars, teachers, and administrators, artificial intelligence (AI) machines to evaluate writing have become a hot topic in education. Numerous companies have developed digital tools that evaluate writing, from ETS 's Criterion to Pearson's Knowledge Analysis Technology to Vantage's MY Access!. It appears many forces are converging in the field of composition: technology development, an ongoing flood of criticism about workers’ communication skills, governmental involvement (maybe “meddling” is more appropriate) with education. If we compositionists leap on the educational opportunities afforded by technology, we could re-define teaching and learning. If not, we might get bulldozed.
Some might say the latter is already happening. Patricia Freitag Ericsson and Richard Haswell’s anthology Machine Scoring of Student Essays:Truth and Consequences is an effort to dodge that bulldozer (in lieu, perhaps, of ways of stopping it altogether). The essays in this anthology are, for the most part, punchy and smart, and they have in common that great thing: they say something (click here for a summary of the key questions posed in each chapter).