The Writing Tutor Program

Abstract

This chapter gives an account of the practical application of the modelling, NEWT, the Writing Tutor Program. Both applied models provided “blueprints” for the Writing Tutor Program, the first, in terms of its pedagogical value, with helpful specific advice and guidance, the second, in terms of its algorithmic expression and the input option, which allowed local social criteria to be captured. Computer programming is not a forgiving mode, and represents social processes only to the extent to which they have been represented accurately – and comprehensively – in the original design. Once a social process has been expressed in algorithmic terms, however, the concomitant algorithms involved in programming can be brought into play to represent the process faithfully to the intended user. The second applied model represented composing as a social algorithm, and the software could then replicate this algorithm in machine language. While this particular form of practical application may seem to occupy a small area of the options available in the general scheme of things, it is in fact the most powerful application as a force for social transformation, as a computer program can easily be disseminated worldwide.