Using Microsoft Word™

Using Markin™

This technology is useful in all disciplines, but today we will look at how a teacher might use it to mark up a rough draft of an essay on animal rights written by a fictional student named Sandra Elizabeth Smith.  Here is a copy of the first paragraph of Sandra’s essay:

Microsoft Word™

Once you receive a student’s text and have opened it up in MS Word™ you can perform many different types of electronic mark-ups such as:

Insert text of a contrasting font color that is either underlined, 2x underlined, written in bold or italics.

Indicate text to delete by using the strikethrough feature.

Insert comments.

Here are the steps to do this in MS Word™: [Editor's Note Jan. 2003: Note that the references for MSWord are from the 1997 version of the software]

Go to the Tools menu and pull down to Track Changes.  From there, select Highlight Changes.  Click on Track Changes While Editing.   Click on Options.  You will see the following dialog box:

You can choose the font color and the appearance of the inserted text, as well as the font color and the appearance of deleted text.  Click on OK .

To insert comments, go to the Insert menu and pull down to Comment.  This will highlight the area next to the cursor and give you a text box in the bottom frame in which you can insert your comments.  The portion of the text related to the comments will be highlighted in yellow.  The comments will appear to to the student when the mouse is rolled over the highlighted area.  Here is how Sandra will see the text marked up using Microsoft Word™:

Her teacher can save this document in Rich Text Format (RTF) and send it back to her via email.

Markin™

Markin™ is a new software marketed by Creative Technology.  It can be used to mark up texts produced using a word processor as well as HTML and Dynamic HTML texts.  The marked-up text can be saved as HTML, Dynamic HTML (DHTML), Rich Text Format (rtf) or as Text.  Since this software was specifically designed for teachers marking up students’ texts, it has more features than Microsoft Word.   The main features of  this software are:

Annotations: These are a set of buttons that allow the grader pre-defined ways of marking specific errors (such as spelling) or common errors.  They are pre-defined when you receive the software, but can be modified by the user according to needs and language. For example, if you are correcting students' work in a foreign language, you can create an annotation button for accent errors.

Comments: Used when the grader has something very specific to say, or something that goes beyond the capabilities of  the pre-defined annotations.

Feedback: Comments placed at the end of the student’s text as a general reaction to the work.

Grades : Can be given in any form, percentage, letter grade, etc.

There are two ways of uploading a student’s work into the Markin™ program.  A grader can copy and paste the student’s text into a blank file or import a file.  The former is useful when the text is relatively short, but the latter is necessary when a grader is dealing with more than a few pages (such as a 15-page research paper or a thesis chapter).

This is how Sandra’s text would look if we copied and pasted it into the Markin™ program.

Annotations: When using the Annotation buttons to correct something like a spelling error, highlight the error and click on the Spl button.  The error will then be underlined and the error type will be displayed next to the underlined text.  Or more simply, the grader can insert the cursor next to the text, click on the Annotation button, and the error type will be displayed without the word being underlined.  In order to remove an annotation you have inserted erroneously, click on the annotation text and in the Marking Menu, choose Delete Annotation.  There is also a Delete Annotation button  which is highlighted when the cursor is placed within any Annotation text.

Comments: Comments are useful when the problem to address is very specific and needs to be explained to the student.  In addition, a comment can also be inserted to give specific praise to a student’s efforts.  When adding a comment, insert the cursor next to the text you wish to discuss and click on the Insert Comment button in the tool bar .  A window in which you can insert your comments will pop up below the text.  If you wish to delete a comment, click on the Delete Comment button in the toolbar .  A dialog box will appear asking what comment number to delete.  Type in the number of the comment and click OK.

Feedback: This feature allows you to give two types of  feedback at the end of a document.  For example, you may want to give one type of feedback for grammar and style, and  another type of  feedback for content.  In order to compose your feedback, click on one of the Feedback buttons in the toolbar .    You will see a window similar to the Comments window in which to compose your feedback.

Grades: You can insert any kind of grade by clicking on the Insert Grade button .  This brings up a dialog box that allows you to type in a letter grade, numerical grade or other. 

Now you can export the corrected text as RTF, Text, HTML or DHTML.

Here is how Sandra’s text looks after being marked up in Markin™ and exported as RTF.