Writing Software

There are two basic components to the teaching of writing. One is content, involving the production and organization of ideas. The second is mechanics, made up of grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, sentence structure, etc.

Typically writing software addresses one or the other of these two aspects. Some grammar and writing software tries to help students by leading them through drills which require the spotting and the correction of errors in example sentences and paragraphs. Other academic writing software enables the student to use a variety of graphic organizes such as webs. These help the student to group word lists and short phrases into categories that are later turned into sentences, paragraphs and essays.

For a student with learning disabilities, however, one of the best writing improvement software products is one with talking word prediction. Often a student with dyslexia has a lot to say but the spelling of each individual word stops him cold. “Last week I had a great adventure” instead becomes “Last week I went on a big trip.” The dyslexic writer “plays it safe” by not taking chances in wrongly spelling words from his everyday vocabulary.

Academic Support’s choice for excellent writing software is WordQ. WordQ is a writing tool used along with standard Windows word processing software to provide spelling and reading assistance. It uses advanced word prediction to suggest words to the writer and provides spoken (text-to-speech) feedback. WordQ also acts as a text reader to help you proof-read your work or to read existing or scanned text; it’ll even read the Internet text to you! Users of all ages who have problems writing and editing can benefit, including those who have learning disabilities such as dyslexia. WordQ writing software continuously predicts words as you are typing and presents you with a list of correctly spelled words. If you need help deciding which word to use, each word can be read aloud for you by the computer before you make a selection. When you hear the word that you want, you can choose it with a single click. Even when you hit the space bar WordQ also attempts to predict the next word in your sentence. WordQ checks for the proper spelling of words as you type.

When you’re teaching students with dyslexia, you need all the tools you can get, whether it’s Ultimate Phonics Reading Software, WordQ Writing Software, or Quarter Mile Math Software.