Process writer is a word processing program designed to help students with allthe phases of the writing process.  These phases include generating ideas, organizing notes, and writing and editing final drafts.  The
 program has four sets of writing tools.  These tools are organized under four different menus. 

 Opening Process Writer 

                     1. Turn the computer on 

                     2. Double click to open up the hard drive 

                     3. Double click to open up the literacy folder 

                     4. Open up process writer
 

 Things to Know

              Apple Menu 

                     1. Under the apple menu you can select About Process Writer to read about the program. 

                     2. Under the apple menu you an select find help.
 

         File Menu

              This menu is used to open documents, save and print. 

         Edit Menu

              This menu allows you to undo, cut, copy, and paste. 

Using the Prewrite Menu 

                     1. Go to the prewrite menu and drag the mouse down to scan the prewrite selection. 

                     2. The prewrite menu has the following selection:  freewriting, invisible writing, brainstorming, personal journal, wild ideas and writing projects. 

                     3. All of these activities will take you out of the word processing window and into a work area specific for that activity.  After you have finished using your selected activity you can transfer your work to the word processing window. 

                     4. To open up one of the activities simply use your mouse to highlight the desired activity.  When the activity is called up, the computer will provide you with the basic instructions. 

                     5. Freewriter turns off the backspace and delete keys.  This program allows students to type thought without worrying about corrections and revisions. 

                     6. Invisible writer hides your text until you transfer it to the word processing window. 

                     7. Brainstorming allows you to list as many ideas about a topic as you can.  Later you can group these ideas. 

                     8. Personal Journal allows students to record thoughts and feelings in a personal journal. 

                     9. Wild Ideas allows students to have the computer assist them in generating unusual writing ideas and topics. 

                     10. Teacher Wild Ideas are unusual ideas created by the teacher. 

                    11. The Writing Project allows students to see projects created by the computer or the teacher.
 

The Organization Menu

                     1. The organization menu contains activities that will help you organize your ideas into notes and appropriate for a variety of writing formats. 

                     2. The organization activities writing formats consist of the following:  essay, letter, report, story, and poem. 

                     3. After you open up an organization activity, the computer will instruct you on how to sue the activity. 

                     4. Before you leave the activity the computer will ask if you want to transfer your notes to the word processing window.  You can print your notes or place them in the word processing window.
 

The Compose Menu

                     1. The compose menu contains four commands you can use while working with the Process Writer program. 

                     2. Find and change allows you to search for and change word as you edit your document. 

                     3. Single space and double space allow you to change the line spacing of your document.
 

The Review Menu 

                     1. This menu allows you to strengthen your writing by putting your writing through a series of evaluation. 

                     2. The activities on the review menu are new views, evaluation forms, proofreading and by the numbers. 

                     3. By the numbers allows you to count the words in your text in rank order and to scan the text or a word count, average length of the words, and the average number of words per sentence or paragraph.
 

Teacher Utility 

              This feature allows the teacher to add wild ideas and to add to the writing project bank.  This information is added through the utility disk. 

Exiting Process Writer

                     1. Under the file menu go to quit. 

                     2. The computer will ask if you want to save your document.  At this time you can respond no to this question. 

                     3. If you tried to save it would ask you to name your program.  You an save your program to the hard drive or to a floppy disk. 

                     4. Now close the literacy folder and the hard drive.