Lettersmith is an innovative educational technology platform that significantly improves student writing quality and confidence, while strategically deploying instructors’ expertise and time.

Instead of spending time repeatedly pointing out the same basic mistakes, instructors can customize templates that break writing processes into manageable chunks with clearly articulated expectations for structure, content and tone.

Existing writing support tools provide feedback after a draft has been produced. Lettersmith uniquely provides support much earlier in the process. The platform enables instructors to curate checklists of required components and provide models of good writing in a specific professional or academic genre.

Instructors can thus effectively support large numbers of learners from the very initial stages of drafting. As students practice complex rhetorical moves, real-time feedback and reflection opportunities promote metacognition as they assess their own learning.

Umang Bhojani, a senior studying user experience in the School of Information, analyzed transcripts of interviews with students who used Lettersmith in technical classes.

“Students felt able to genuinely internalize the improvements that were made in their writing, (learning) not only how to write certain components of a professional piece, but why these components were important and how to make them cohesive in nature,” Bhojani wrote.

Such transparency improves instructional equity and is particularly useful for those who may not have a strong professional network for writing support, such as first-generation students and non-native English speakers. 

Since its inception, more than 5,000 people have used Lettersmith to write cover letters, technical reports, client-based email, memos and reading responses.

Lettersmith is being developed in partnership with the Center for Academic Innovation.

Above photo:

Julie Hui, School of Information