Spurred by recent developments in information processing, a new class of technologies has emerged capable of evaluating the quality of prosaic texts. Accomplishing, through sheer number crunching, feats once attributable only to intelligence and intuition, these "automated essay scorers" possess the ability to simulate the judgments that experienced readers make when assessing written prose. Although their practical applications are obvious, the use of automated technologies to teach and assess writing remains a hotly contested issue. How reliable are automated essay scorers, and what place,...