Words at the Flick of a Key

A new program brings high tech to children's writing

Writing is never easy, but some people find it far more troublesome than others. For young children, pencil and paper can present Sisyphean problems: by the time some youngsters have formed the letters, they have lost track of what they wanted to say. Moreover, extensive revision, the key to good writing, is sometimes hard to squeeze on a sheet of paper, handwritten or typed. It is a rare and unpopular teacher who requires any but the most superficial rewriting, since changing sentences may mean recopying a whole page.

Computers, which can correct, expand, recopy and print words at the flick of a key, have increasingly stirred the interest of writing and language arts teachers, a group that once eyed the computer revolution with suspicion and dread. Two years ago, researchers at New York City's progressive Bank Street College of Education decided to find out how word processors might affect the writing of their students. They had a few hundred grade-school children and a dozen microcomputers. But they lacked one necessary ingredient: a suitable writing program. Recalls President Richard Ruopp: "We tested the available word processors and found we couldn't use any of them."

Result: the Bank Street Writer, a $69.95 computer program ($95 for the three-disc school package) that will turn an Apple, Atari or, by summer, Commodore computer into an uncomplicated word processor. Designed by Software Consultant Franklin Smith and a team of experts from Bank Street and Intentional Educations Inc., a software development firm in Watertown, Mass., the disc is not only changing the way some children hone their writing skills, it is also proving a commercial success. It is now the fourth fastest-selling word-processing program on the market, competing against such powerful bestsellers as WordStar ($495), Screenwriter II ($129.95) and Letter Perfect ($149.95).

The key to B.S.W.'s success is ease of use: the writer slides the floppy disc into a computer and turns the machine on. In a matter of seconds, the computer is programmed and ready for typing. There are no codes to memorize, because all instructions are shown on the top of the screen. Yet for all of its simplicity, it is powerful: characters appear and disappear at a keystroke; blocks of text jump quickly from one place to another.

When the program was tested on children, the results were dramatic. Says Kitty Newhouse of the Bank Street School: "I've never seen so much excitement in 15 years of teaching writing." Newhouse is using B.S.W. for a class of ten-and eleven-year-olds. Children who once struggled to write two-page stories are churning out five pages or more. Students who shied away from writing anything at all are clamoring for extra time at the machine. Most important, the children cheerfully tackle the messy business of revision.

"It's so much easier on the computer," said Sharon Musher, 10, as she polished off a tale of knights and dragons. Said Jonathan Friedberg, 11: "I can put a new word in. I can move a sentence or a whole page." Similar testimonials emerge from schools in cities as scattered as Palo Alto, Calif.; Ann Arbor, Mich.; and Keene, N.H. This summer hundreds of Atari computer campers will use B.S.W. to write letters home. In Calgary, Alta., a dozen children with muscle-control problems have been spending four hours a week with it. Says Psychologist Richard Conte: "This is a real boost for kids who for years have been criticized for sloppy work."

Judging from recent sales, however, a good proportion of B.S.W. users are adults. Designing a program for children, the Bank Street team inadvertently responded to a challenge the entire software industry faces: making computers accessible to people who do not understand machines and do not want to read manuals. "The idea of an easy-to-use word processor is not a profound notion," says Bank Street's Ruopp. "But it is surprising that nobody has done it before." This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.