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Educause Southeast Regional Conference
June 20, 2006
Christy Desmet, Director of First-year Composition <[email protected]>
Ron Balthazor, Developer <[email protected]>
University of Georgia
Introduction to <emma>
<emma>, or an Electronic Markup and Management Application, is a suite of open-source software
applications designed especially for writers. <emma> is not an automated editing or grading program.
For that reason, we like to say that <emma> is less a piece of software than a unified “electronic
writing environment.” Since 2003, the <emma> application has been developed by a group of
professors, instructors, teaching assistants, and software designers from the University of Georgia
Department of English. The project very much depends on collaboration and on the ongoing
participation and intelligence of classroom teachers. At present, <emma> is being used and developed
primarily in the University of Georgia First-year Composition Program, but we are steadily acquiring
partners in other departments and at other university and college campuses.
<emma>, as the acronym suggests, has two parts. The “markup” function of <emma> is simply a word
processor that runs XML (Extensible Markup Language) in the background. XML, like the more
familiar Web language HTML, “marks” certain features of text. HTML tells a web browser how to
display text (e.g, in italics, bold, or as a block quotation). XML, by contrast, tells the browser the
identity of a piece of text (e.g;, as a noun or verb, thesis or topic sentence, claim or warrant). The
power of XML to let users define the meaning of tags makes it especially useful to writers and
teachers of writing. For one thing, XML tags, whether defined by teachers or students, make explicit
the qualities of writing under consideration. Second, XML allows writers, teachers, and researchers to
“extract” different qualities of a piece of writing and to “see” it – both literally and metaphorically –
in different ways. Finally, XML's flexibility allows writing to be re-purposed, to be submitted as a
stand-alone essay for peer review, analyzed for certain rhetorical features, then revised for inclusion in
a course portfolio. The “management” portion of <emma> is a database that not only contains all of
the documents produced in <emma>, but also allows them to be displayed, reviewed, and revised in
different ways.
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The Writing Cycle with <emma>
To get a sense of how <emma> works, imagine the following cycle.
1. Writing: First, the author creates a document in Open Office, using either the standard
template or a special template designed by the program or even the individual instructor. The
author writes in the uncluttered WYSIWYG environment, while the XML tags work quietly in
the background.
2. When finished, the author uploads the document to the <emma> website using a familiar type
of upload button:
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3. The author controls who sees the document, indicating either the student and instructor only or
opening the document to peers. In the <emma> display shown below, we see the icon of two
people, which means that the author has set the permissions for “peers.” The notation “1 F”
indicates that this isassignment 1, final stage. The author's name and a time stamp also appear.
The author can use the Edit button to make any necessary changes to this information, to add
the document to the author's portfolio, or to delete the file.
4. Commenting: At this point in the cycle, the document becomes available for commenting by
other students in the class and by the instructor. Readers have two options available to them.
They can open a dialogue box at the bottom of the document to add a quick comment; or they
can download the entire document into OpenOffice for more extensive commenting and
editing. Like MsWord, OpenOffice has a track changes function that is supported by <emma>'s
display. More substantive comments can be added as a “note”in OpenOffice that records the
message and author's name. The comment is visible as a mouse-over in OpenOffice and is
displayed in <emma> as a marginal comment:
5. Reviewing: <emma>'s use of XML and web displays allows teachers, individual writers, and
writing groups to use specific OpenOffice templates to literally “see” their writing in new
ways. Below is an example of a reviewing template that highlights specific rhetorical areas for
consideration (in this case, examples, support, and transitions). In an argumentative essay, the
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reviewer highlights instances of weak support, which are displayed in gray on the browser,
then adds further comments as needed. When the author considers these comments or when an
entire class discusses the essay, the highlighting can be turned on or off in order to focus the
readers' attention differently.
The reviewing templates takes advantage of XML's ability to make the features of writing
explicit. When a writer marks particular features of her text (e.g., the thesis of an essay), peer
reviewers, teachers, and tutors can “see” exactly what the author considers to be the essay's
main idea. When reviewers, teachers, and tutors do the same, the author can see if his opinion
matches up with those of his readers. The templates also help instructors direct writers'
attention to specific areas of analysis.
Any textual feature “marked” with XML can be extracted from the document and displayed as
well in a new context. <emma> can “Combine” documents to view selected elements, such as
the essay's thesis, citations, or grammatical errors. In class, the group can compare every
instance of a marked “thesis,” for instance, so that students can readily see how their thesis
compares with those composed by their peers. The combined display makes a focused review
of an entire class's work quite efficient and instructive.
6. Revising: At this point, the writer has plenty of useful feedback to consult when revising her
essay. She can return to template displays and comments at any time and even print out
commented texts. Writers can begin anew or work with existing text; they can concentrate on
the entire essay or just one part. The simplicity of uploading documents makes the revision
process easy and satisfying. <emma> also has a “Compare frames” display that allows writers
to reflect on their revision process by looking at different versions of the same essay side-byside.
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7. Publishing, ePortfolios, and Assessment: One of <emma>'s most attractive features for
writers is the fact that the application “publishes” writing automatically to the web. <emma>
documents are available to writers, their instructors and if desired, their peers, but they are also
protected behind a password. Publishing on the Web, even informally, gives writers pride in
their work and, once again, helps them to “see” their work with new eyes. OpenOffice and
<emma> also allow writers to incorporate images, charts, sound clips, and (soon) video clips
into their work, increasing the multi-media possibilities for authors and expanding our sense of
what constitutes “writing.”
<emma> also has a clean, efficient protocol for creating ePortfolios. When revision is
complete, the author simply has to click one button in the “Edit” dialogue box to insert that
document into the portfolio and determine its order among the exhibits. ePortfolios are
wonderful assessment tools because they make all feedback formative, because they encourage
imagination, and because they ask writers to reflect upon their own writing process and so
participate actively in the assessment process. This poster session includes a separate handout
on creating an ePortfolio with <emma>. Below is one example of a writing portfolio that the
UGA First-year Composition Program uses for final assessment.
As stated in the 2006-2007 FYC Handbook,
The Portfolio will include:
● a biography of the portfolio author and, if desired, a picture of the writer or other
relevant image;
● an Introductory Reflective Essay that presents a significant “thesis” to be supported by
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●
●
●
●
the individual writing exhibits;
two of the four essays written for the class--revised, edited, and polished as final
products for the portfolio;
one example of writing that demonstrates and discusses the student’s revision process;
one example that demonstrates and discusses the student’s contribution to peer review;
one “wild card” submission chosen by the student as representative of her or his own
work.
Assessment, in this system, is a logical extension of peer commenting and reviewing.
Instructors use the same commenting and track-changes functions as do peer reviewers, making
grading a familiar and logical part of the writing process. In the UGA FYC Program,
instructors can also append the Program Grading Rubric to the graded essays and release
comments and grading rubric at different times. Because <emma> files away all uploaded
documents – there is no chance of overwriting or problems of version control – every stage of
feedback and assessment remains available to students throughout the semester. In FYC, Final
Portfolios are graded by two instructors; for this process, <emma> provides a simple, efficient
mechanism for recording grades and comments and automatically tallies final portfolio grades.
Summary: With <emma>, writing becomes a productive cycle that helps writers through the process
of composing, reviewing, and revising their work and, finally, allows then to “publish” and display
their writing with pride.
Other Possibilities Across the Curriculum
Although much of <emma>'s development has taken place within the University of Georgia First-year
Composition Program, as an electronic environment <emma> is infinitely adaptable to a variety of
writing tasks and situations. Just to give one example, in a class on the Human Genome students wrote
their lab reports in <emma>, and part of the exercise involved annotating a string of the human
genome. Below one student's annotation of 12708 characters: try doing that with a word processor!
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Technical Specs
For those who care about these matters, the application we call <emma> uses OpenOffice as its XMLbased word processor. The project then uses Cocoon (part of the Apache XML open-source
development project), an XML publishing framework running on the Jakarta-Tomcat servlet engine.
Cocoon is used to produce server-side XSL transformations of the XML documents. Cocoon is a
complete document production and management environment that includes PDF production, a rich
search capability, and multiple document concatenation. Currently we are using Postgres as our
database for authentication and document tracking. (Thanks to Ron Balthazor for this description.)
Copyright Christy Desmet 2006. This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is
granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this
copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by
permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from
the author.