Now that software developers and large publishing eachers want more than computerized workbooks for their students, we are seeing the market inundated by programs that claim to help students through various stages of the writing process. Always on the lookout for new writing software, my department's Writing Center is accumulating a software library that we at the Center hope will help our students to become better writers. Many of the new programs are slick and extremely clever. They also seem to be getting more complicated. While we continue to have a good time playing with each new program as it comes in, we judge the real value a piece of software of this nature by whether students are willing to use it and how its use affects their writing. Though the students who use our Writing Center have several choices if they want to use software to help them with invention, one program in particular seems to be a favorite. What is more important, however, is not that students simply like the program, and therefore are likely to use it, but also that it

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helps these students produce information which they then find useful in their writing. This program is PREWRITE.

PREWRITE, by Mimi Schwartz (marketed by Boynton/Cook), is, except for pure word-processing packages, the piece of software most requested by students in our Writing Center. What is most impressive is that the students don't just play with the program once, but rather go back to it time and time again. My sense is that the key to PREWRITE's success lies in its simplicity. It is not pretentious. It is not flashy. It is not complicated. All it does is help students focus their ideas and then produce some information about those ideas. Yet, what more could anyone want from an invention program?

In order to run PREWRITE, all a student needs to know is how to turn on an Apple II computer, boot a disk, and follow the instructions on the screen. After viewing some introductory material, the student must then decide between PREWRITE A, intended for students who are working on writing which is either fictional or personal, or PREWRITE B intended for expository prose.

The A option will lead students through a series of questions to which individuals respond as writers. Students begin by brainstorming topics. Then the students are asked to respond to the topics they've identified. Students are then led through a journalistic heuristic, questions of purpose, and audience analysis. From this point, students are asked to think of their topic in metaphorical terms and to come up with metaphorical responses. Finally, students

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are encouraged to try their hand at a short freewrite.

In PREWRITE B, the program starts asking students the same questions as in the A option. PREWRITE B then asks questions which help students pinpoint any potential controversy about a topic, to view both sides of an issue, to see probable casual relationships, and to make recommendations concerning the topic. There is also a section where students are asked to brainstorm a list of potential sources they might want to check later. Like option A, option B ends by asking the student to do a short freewrite.

After finishing PREWRITE, students have the choice of printing a hard copy of their work or of saving the file to a disk. (PREWRITE will only print the student's responses, not the PREWRITE questions. It is possible to get a hard copy of the PREWRITE questions by echoing the screen display to the printer and booting PREWRITE from BASIC.) If the file is saved to a disk, it creates a standard DOS 3.3 text file which can then be used by appropriate word processors. Using DOS 3.3 files can produce some problems since many word-processing programs such as APPLEWORKS are PRODOS-based. Though cumbersome, it is possible to take text files created by PREWRITE and convert them to APPLEWORKS word-processor files. However, in most instances this conversion is unnecessary as the real power of PREWRITE does not appear to be in tinkering with the responses as source material.

PREWRITE does have an option which will allow teachers to modify the existing questions and, if student files are to be saved to the

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disk, to monitor those files. The clearly written, but very short, manual explains these procedures. Actually, this may be the only reason a manual is needed at all. PREWRITE runs so easily that documentation may be superfluous. One word of caution is necessary to users. We find students can be very creative in what they do with software. Whenever it is possible, we prefer to have students use either copies or write-protected software. Unfortunately, PREWRITE is copy-protected. Since, after the freewrite is over, it writes the file to the disk, it cannot run write-protected. Students may, therefore, need to be monitored while using PREWRITE.

PREWRITE features neither the fanciest graphics nor the most sophisticated heuristics. Indeed, when I first tried it, I have to admit that I was less than impressed. It was not something I would personally use in my own writing. Yet, after seeing students use PREWRITE for a year, I am convinced that it is truly helpful for beginning writers. While many of us may longingly eye Porsches and Mercedes, the fact of the matter is that our Fords, Chevies, and Toyotas do a very nice job of providing us with good transportation. In terms of invention programs, PREWRITE is in the Ford, Chevy, Toyota class. It may not be fancy, but it sure gets the job done. In fact, it does its job very well.