2. The System in Action
My students produce their written work using a variety of word-processing packages for both the PC and the Macintosh. The only requirement for the purposes of the electronic marking system is that the application has the capability to save files in Rich Text Format (with the filename extension ".rtf"). Rich Text is a format created by Microsoft to enable sharing of word-processed documents between different applications and platforms, and it works a little like an HTML file, by encoding all the formatting information in ASCII text codes along with the text. Most recent word-processing packages will support Rich Text (see the results of my brief survey of some of the most common applications to see if your word-processor will handle it well).
The students then attach the file to an e-mail message and send it to me. The use of e-mail ensures that I can receive files from both PCs and Macintoshes, whichever platform I happen to be working on. I can then open the file in my word-processor, and call up a special marking toolbar. Each button on the toolbar is linked to a macro which inserts an annotation. This is what a marking toolbar looks like.
MS Word Marking ToolbarThe example here is from MS Word 7. I have created a similar system for WordPerfect 6.1.
Annotating and commenting the text is then a simple matter of using the buttons. For example, a spelling error would be dealt with as follows:
Illustration of marking a spelling error.The problem text is red and double-underlined, and the annotation is in blue superscript. Specific error-types I commonly want to diagnose have their own buttons ("AG" = subject-verb agreement, for example); for the mysterious or incomprehensible, there is a "??" annotation. Some buttons, such as the "Missing Word" button, simply insert annotations at the cursor. Other buttons redline text to be cut, or simply change the colour of text. For comments on content, I use green footnotes; pressing the "Green Foot" button at the beginning of the session ensures that all footnotes, and footnote numbers in the text, will be in green. A marked text ends up looking something like this:
Illustration of marked text.
The file is then saved in Rich Text Format, and e-mailed back to the student. It can be opened in any word-processor that can read RTF files. The student may use it as the basis for another draft, cutting and emending where necessary, if this is part of a process writing exercise. The document can also be printed; the use of superscript and double-underlining ensures that the annotations remain clear even when printed on a monochrome printer.