In light of John's last post, this article on CNN.com is cause for concern:

Now grading your student essay -- a computer

Proponents of the grading software praise it as a time-saving device for teachers, who now can give more writing assignments without having to spend time actually reading them. What they fail to address is whether numerous writing assignments for a software program will improve students' writing skills or simply help them develop writing-for-a-computer skills. The only person who seems to understand this distinction is the UC Davis professor who tried adding the word "chimpanzee" to his essay and got a higher score for his use of unusual an word.

In an effort to counteract this trend of writing for computers, here is a link to George Orwell's essay, "Politics and the English Language." This should be mandatory reading for high-school English students.

Katie