The Correlation of Online Proofreaders Usability Towards Academic Writings Perceived by

SHS Students
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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

New digital media have played an important role in the teaching of writing, through both the

cognitive era that began in the 1980s, in which word processing was emphasized as a tool for

revision Kern & Warschauer( 2000). In this global electronic online of ours, at some point much

of the information pass-through digital world, it is essential specifically to follow the standards

of excellent prose. By the use of online proofreading, achieving excellence in writing is scarcely

achieved. It's indeed important to ensure the quality of the document or the format of a piece of

writing. To provide readers with better and more efficient writing, writers may use an online

resources tool to find out what they need to edit or review grammar. The writer must get good

writing because it creates a positive impression, if writers have difficulty with their work and do

not want to pay attention to their mistakes in writing, an online proofreader may be used to

review and correct their errors.

In general, the development of various computer software and hardware has become quite

prominent as a result of technological advances in electronics. Since it was built, computers have

been one of the most important resources for any human operation. It's the basis for conversation

today in a few ways. That means there are a number of communication tech resources like

writing, talking and video conferences. As far as writing is concerned, word processors are

mainly used for written correspondence. At the beginning, these digital systems are mainly used

to write texts without any other choices, as the written text could contain several typing or

grammatical errors, the development of word processors provides an additional choice for
The Correlation of Online Proofreaders Usability Towards Academic Writings Perceived by
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proofreading.Proofreading means to read and correct mistakes in a written or printed piece of

writing (Mariem-Webster 2016).

Works are made less complicated and easy in this new technology, the way people analyze

and examine because of the dominant technology. The internet is an example of this; the internet

plays an essential role in today's culture, offering easy access to any knowledge explicitly needed

in school works. Some students have already used some of the online resources that can assist

them in their school work. An online proofreader is one of these.

An online proofreader can be used to review and correct errors if writers have trouble with

academic work and do not want to pay attention to written errors .As a way to make academic

writing easier. Most SHS students in CHCCI use online proofreaders. Due to various scholarly

papers, SHS students in CHCCI are more engaged in using it at some point. In particular,

students can now use an online proofreader to see what can be applied and edited by students

doing a research paper. An online proofreader helps with academic writing, but some students

rely on online proofreaders using the internet in that way they cannot learn anymore because

something they want to know or are searching for is already on the internet.

Background of the Study

In the technological society, writing plays an essential role in real life, as it does right now.

There are many writing materials that human beings use to exchange ideas as social beings in the

media. According to Meyers (2005), writing is an action. There are some steps in the writing

process, they are the process of discovering and organizing the idea, writing or putting them on

paper, reshaping and revise the writing.

The Correlation of Online Proofreaders Usability Towards Academic Writings Perceived by
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According to Hamlin (2011) the teaching of writing over the past couple of decades has

concentrated on the writing process with lessons on how to develop a sophisticated product that

reflects clear topic understanding, logical coherence, and selective use of academic vocabulary,

stylish syntax, grammatical accuracy and avoidance of plagiarism. The final stage in such a

process is the proofreading phase in which the writer tries to ensure accuracy of grammar,

spelling, and punctuation.

Hinkel (2004) asserted writing skills of nonnative speakers of English are still unacceptable

to meet the criteria of higher education contexts. One of the main factors associated with

students’ poor writing skills may be their inaccurate grammar use or lack of linguistic knowledge

relevant to academic writing. However, the use of grammar and spelling checkers in writing

classes was not positively conceived in the early 1990s because grammar checkers during this

time were limited to detecting spelling or language errors rather than giving substantive

comments on the substance and arrangement of the essays. Hawisher et al., (2008) argued that

"the use of grammar checkers resists significant reform by using machines to reinforce older and

sometimes conventional ways of thinking about learning"

Shashok (2001) claims proofreaders who work with journal and book manuscripts help

authors to produce a piece of writing that will effectively communicate their message to the

target audience This role, According to Shashok, it goes some way beyond merely correcting

grammar, with part of the task of the proofreader being to get the writers to focus on their

rhetorical intent and the essence of their audience.

According to Hacker (2002),"Although proofreading may be dull, it is crucial. Errors strewn

throughout an essay are distracting and annoying”. If the writer doesn't care about this piece of
The Correlation of Online Proofreaders Usability Towards Academic Writings Perceived by
SHS Students
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writing, thinks the reader, why should I? A carefully proofread essay, however, sends a positive

message: it shows that you value your writing and respect your readers. According to Raphael

Mudge (2010) in his study on “The Design of a Proofreading Software Service, Washington,

DC” observes that grammar and style checker being used is similar to language tool with the

exception that it uses the language model to filter suggestions that don’t fit the context of the text

they replace, similar to work from Microsoft Research.

It is essential to know the views, the level of satisfaction, and the problems of users using

Online Proofreader tools. It is also vital to understand whether users are using different editorial

features of the Online Proofreaders and whether they are facing any problems with the use of

Online Checker tools. There is also a need to find out for what reason the users of the online

proofreader are used. The study will also help to find out the usefulness of the online proofreader

as grammar check and editing among academics, researchers, and students.

Although many studies have attempted to prove its effectiveness, there is still a lack of

evidential studies that have investigated the effectiveness of online proofreader tools in the

academic writing skills of students. As Miller (2018) indicates that there is a need to conduct

more studies that referring to this phenomenon. Initially the program had a grammar function

included but it was not useful for the students so it was taken out. The grammar function

highlighted the different parts of speech used, but did not give any insight into the correctness of

the parts of speech. It was decided to hide this function of the program until a future date when

there is more time to work on the grammatical aspects. Grammar checkers are dangerous in

themselves as students expect all of their errors to be noticed by the machine. Grammar checkers

cannot find all errors (source). Quite often, these online programs give students misinformation.
The Correlation of Online Proofreaders Usability Towards Academic Writings Perceived by
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Rather than give the students a faulty product, it was deemed better to hide the feature until a

later date. For this reason, In order to resolve the current gap, the researchers suggested that

students use the best online resources to correct spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors.

The researcher investigates SHS students at CHCCI to analyze how online resources are

effective in the academic writing output of students. It aims to determine how online proofreader

tools develop their academic writing skills by using these.

Statement of the Objectives

This study aimed to investigate the effects of online proofreaders to improve the

academic writing skills of selected SHS students of CHCCI and the possible effects of online

proofreaders in the academic performance level in their learning area.

These are the research questions the researcher will be using in this study:

1. How online proofreader tools minimize the error in paper?

2. How many percent of students used online proofreading as accuracy in grammar and

vocabulary to improve their academic writing?

3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of online proofreaders perceived by the

students?

4. How often do students use online proofreading?

Research Hypothesis

Null Hypothesis
The Correlation of Online Proofreaders Usability Towards Academic Writings Perceived by
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There is no significant relationship between Online Proofreaders Usage and Academic

Writing Skills of the SHS Students at CHCCI.

Alternative Hypothesis

There is significant relationship between Online Proofreaders Usage and Academic

Writing Skills of the SHS Students at CHCCI.

Significance of the Study

The results of this study are expected to present the useful information as the solution to

enhance academic writing skills of SHS students at CHCCI by the use of online proofreaders.

The researchers want to know on what are the impacts of online proofreader in the academic

writing skills of SHS students at CHCCI. Also, it will address the effects of this to their learning.

The importance of knowing the impacts of online proofreaders to the academic writing skills of

SHS students is to know on how the online tools can be useful to academic writing of SHS

students. The findings of this research will be beneficial to the people of CHCCI, especially to

the SHS students, as it provides information for all.

The contributions of this study are beneficial to the students, the teachers, other

educational institution and future researchers. This study “The Correlation of Online

Proofreaders Usage and SHS Students’ Academic Writing Skills” is significant to the following:

To the Students, The writer expects this result can encourage student’s motivation in

writing class. It can also help students to be knowledgeable and well informed towards

proofreading in academic writing skills.

The Correlation of Online Proofreaders Usability Towards Academic Writings Perceived by
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To the Teachers, hey are expected to apply Online Proofreader’s tool as online learning

in the writing class to minimize students‟ errors in writing in order to improve students’ writing

skill.

Educational Institutions, The result of this study can be reference and information for

the schools to encourage the English teachers to be more creative and innovative in setting up

and conducting English teaching and learning activities in the classroom. It may serve as an eye

opener to create and innovating materials as to what measures are appropriate to help the SHS

student and teachers.

Lastly, To the Future Researchers, They will conduct a similar study as their reference

in the future as the findings of this study could provide new insights or basis for them.

Scope and Delimitation of the Study

This study is primarily focused on the use of online proofreaders in terms of the academic

writing skills of SHS students at CHCCI. In addition, it was examined whether online

proofreaders are efficient in the academic writing skills of the student. This study will be

conducted at Concepcion Holy Cross College Inc., first semester of S.Y. 2020-2021. Primarily,

the focus of this research is on the Grade 11 and Grade 12 students. The study delimitated to

selected educational institution which is Concepcion Holy Cross College, Inc. located at the

Rose Park, Concepcion Tarlac. The study will not cover the other institutions found in the locale

due to the fact that other institutions like JHS are not quite aware of the online proofreader

resources that only SHS students have covered whereas SHS students use it mostly for the

purpose of making academic writings like research. In addition, the success rate of online
The Correlation of Online Proofreaders Usability Towards Academic Writings Perceived by
SHS Students
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proofreading tools is inconclusive. The researcher will select twenty (20) individuals from Grade

11 and other twenty (20) students in Grade 12, in resulting forty (40) respondents. The study will

be conducted by last week of third week of October, 2020, to the first week of November, 2020.
The Correlation of Online Proofreaders Usability Towards Academic Writings Perceived by
SHS Students
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