Suzie's+Design+Block+F+2011

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An English professor believes that students who have the opportunity to write their essay on word processors will produce better essays than those who write their essays by hand. Design a study that tests the professor's belief.======

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__//**Rule 1: Ask**//__ Hypothesis: Students who have the opportunity to write their essay on word processors will produce better essays than students who write their essays by hand. __//**Rule 2: Identify**//__======

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Independent Variable: Topic of essay. Limited amount of time student can proceed in writing (1 hour). Length of test (1 hour). Total number of students participating (40). Fixed Criteria/Grading Rubric. Gender ratio.======

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All students will be in the same conditions to complete their essays, but the experimental group will type their essay while the controlled group will hand-write their essays. Experiment: 20 random students (1:1 ratio of different genders) of the same age will be each assigned an essay topic and prompt. They will be given 1 hour to finish writing their essay by hand. Another set of 20 random students (1:1 ration of different genders) of the same age will be each assigned an essay topic and prompt. They will also be given 1 hour to finish writing their essay, but this time, by typing. When all of the students finished their essays, they will submit their assignments to the teachers. Five qualified English teachers will grade the student's essays. The name of the essay will be anonymous. They will be handed a detailed grading rubric/criteria. The grading rubric will contain the following standards: Information is organized with well constructed paragraphs / Thesis statement is clearly defined / Ideas in the paper show superlative research and insight etc. The grading rubric will not include handwriting as an element to consider. The five teachers will grade all the papers in random orders. Each student will receive five grades from five different teachers. Their finalized grade will be the average of the total grade the five teachers have given. The scores will be then statistically organized to be compared.======

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__//**Rule 7: Analyze**//__ Statistical procedures will be used. The average score of the students who hand-wrote their essays and the average score of the students who typed their essays will be evaluated. The results may validate or disprove the hypothesis.======