This incisive study examines the uses of computers and telecommunications in the teaching of writing in the fields of journalism and education. The research, based on the results of a questionnaire submitted to college journalism and communication programs in the United States, focuses on the current and projected use of computers and deals with such innovations as the use of online information services (newswires and archives, encyclopedias, statistical source), computer resident reference aids (thesaurus, dictionaries, style books), networking for instructor and student convenience, and software offering a variety of assists (spelling and grammar checks, readability analyses, stylistic assessments, minor editing suggestion, simulation of research for story writing, and instructor assistance in grading). In addition, the author concludes that desktop publishing will be the next technology-based expansion of communications curricula, in light of the recent availability of page design layout with provisions for type fonts, graphics, and bidirectional justification.

It is often said that the software industry will mature as developers improve in knowledge of their markets; Computer Assisted Writing Instruction in Journalism and Professional Education describes that market and concludes that computer assisted writing instruction is an integral part of professional writing programs with many applications yet to come. It will be of primary value to educators planning, managing, or teaching in computer assisted writing laboratories concentrating on professional training. It will also be immensely useful to educators developing beginning level writing laboratories, and those individuals and companies developing software for writing instruction or textbooks for computer-based courses.

Professor Frederick Williams is the author of four published novels, has ghostwritten five autobiographies and is the editor of the anthology, "Black is the Color of Strength." He recently completed a screen script, "Wipe Out: Defending Black Wall Street," for a film bringing to the screen the great accomplishments of Black Americans on Black Wall Street in 1921 Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the hate that destroyed it. He helped establish the African American Studies Department at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He taught a variety of courses to inclue; African American Political Thought, African American Politics, a course on the Novelists of the Harlem Renaissance and African American Literature from Phyllis Wheatley to the Black Arts Movement. He is presently Executive Editor of Jaed Publications LLC.