The “ten-year rule” suggests that it takes about 10 years of preparation to reach “expert” status. How long does it take, however, for someone to reach a level of creative greatness? Through an analysis of 215 contemporary fiction writers, we found that these writers took an average of 10.6 years between their first publication and their best publication, although there was a high degree of var...

This article is concerned with the computational treatment of Appraisal, a Systemic Functional Linguistic theory of the types of language employed to communicate opinion in English. The theory considers aspects such as Attitude (how writers communicate their point of view), Engagement (how writers align themselves with respect to the opinions of others) and Graduation (how writers amplify or di...

Writing assistance systems, from simple spelling checkers to more complex grammar and readability analyzers, can be helpful aids to nonnative writers of English. However, many writing assistance systems have two disadvantages. First, they are not designed to encourage skills learning and independence in their users; instead, users may begin to use the system as a crutch. Second, they use a “one...