For centuries writing has evolved with advancing technologies, expanding art landscape and changing human civilization; and it is stated to continue over the years. From the Stone Age days to the revolution of printing press, from the metallic nibs of pens to the ever-reliable typewriters, or the most recent, laptop/desktop keyboards; there has been a continual development in writing platforms.
The rapid transformation in the writing arena never ceases to amaze us! Applications, tools and technological platforms have all contributed towards making writing an easier activity, enabling this form of communication to be grasped by a larger audience.
Students, moreover kids, nowadays write all the time – perhaps exceeding the amount of time expended by the previous generations. Whether it’s texting to their friends and colleagues, or posting on social networking sites, kids are always engaged with writing in one form or another. In addition to these, academic assignments make it essential for students to have a sound understanding of writing.
To make writing a much easier and easy-going process for students, a new application named Quill.org comes to the rescue. This writing instruction platform for students in schools grabs hold of every written response and minutely analyzes the write-up. The algorithm then takes into account every false word, every inappropriate conjunction, every misplaced punctuation mark, thereby deepening their knowledge in sentence-construction and areas of weaknesses.
The founder of Quill, Peter Gault, states that “Teachers just don’t have enough time in the day to offer feedback on everything students write, and that becomes a huge blocker to students moving forward.”
Quill’s algorithms substitutes for human intervention, wherein teachers no longer need to correct errors or mistakes with a red pen in hand late at night. The system does exactly that automatically, suggesting corrections and elaborating concepts on its own. Within three years since its existence, the writing-instruction platform has attracted over 400,000 students from over 2000 schools and is determined to reach a wider audience in the long run.
“Using machine learning to detect these patterns really unlocks a lot of options that allow us to bring this to thousands, or millions, of additional students in the coming years,” Peter concludes.