The present study compared handwritten reports with those written on computers for
ten precisely defined quality factors. Reports written under both conditions by 160
upper division college students in a business communication course were submitted to
the Grammatik II program for quality analysis and the results were subsequently
analyzed for significant differences using ANOVA. More similarities than differences
were found as six of the ten tests did not show significant differences. The findings of
the study do not support a general conclusion that basic writing quality will improve
when documents are written by computer as compared to writing them by hand. The
importance of the present findings as they relate to earlier research and future re
search directions are discussed.
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