MERIT AUDIO VISUAL
132 West 21st Street
New York, NY 10011

www.meritsoftware.com
sales@meritsoftware.com
Tel (800) 753-6488
Fax (212) 675-8607



Writing Fitness
Skill levels 5 - 8

Complete program: 3 levels
(Level 1) for the below-level to average user
(Level 2) for the average to good user
(Level 3) for the good to excellent user

Evaluation version: Level 2
Tracks work for two students.  Shareware, fully functional for 30 days.  To install, double-click Setup_wtgxf.exe

Cost: $27.00.  See our web site for multi-user, multi-station discounts.

Windows 95/98/NT
5 MB RAM, 5 MB hard disk space


Designed for users in grades five and up at different levels of grammar proficiency. The program can be used as well by intermediate ESL students and by adult users.

Helps students recognize common problems in writing, including run-on sentences, comma faults, sentence fragments, and misplaced or dangling modifiers. This self-paced, improvement and management program helps students sharpen their writing skills and lets teachers monitor their students' independent learning. After an assessment, students work on specific concepts or learn in a mixed practice format. They receive help and contextual feedback. Students are able to track their progress and print results. Student scores are kept in a management system that allows teachers to view and print reports.

The program provides practice at three levels of difficulty with twelve skills per level. The student is asked to find the error among several highlighted choices. If the sentence is correct, the student selects 'No Error.' Levels 1 and 2 texts provide two highlighted words or phrases per sentence; Level 3, three highlighted words or phrases. A list of all skills in the program appears at the end of this document.

For logging on instructions, see Logging on and Class Management section of this guide.

There are several program features the teacher may customize for the students. See TPM section of this guide for information.
1. Hide/Show Sound
2. Hide/Show Graphics
3. Set the number of correct answers needed to pass each part
4. Set the number of texts presented for each part

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
Each level of the program contains four MAIN MENU parts: Tryout, Warm-up, Workout, and Finals. The program is pre-set with the numbers entered in the parts listed below. Summary screens follow each part of the Main Menu. The Print option shows the student's progress to date, not just the results of an individual round.

TRYOUT: Presents all skills in the same order in which they are listed in the program guide. The student will find out what to work on. He will be given two texts for each skill in this level. To pass a skill, he must make correct choices for both texts. The bar at the bottom of the screen shows how much of the Tryout he has completed.
Summary-Tryout: When the student has finished all the questions, a summary screen will show how he did. A check next to a skill lets the student know he has passed. The skills that he passes in this section will also be shown as passed in the Warm-up.

WARM-UP: The student will have a chance to practice one skill per round. Help messages, as well as sound and graphic rewards, are available. To pass, the student must make seven correct choices in a round. The student is given a maximum of ten questions per round. Checks on the Warm-up menu show skills that the student has already passed, either in the Tryout or in the Warm-up.
Summary-Warm-up: The student gets a star for each correct answer. When the student gets seven stars, he gets a check that lets him know that he has passed. The bar at the bottom of the screen indicates how many skills the student has passed in the Warm-up.

WORKOUT: The student will be challenged to use all skills presented in random order. Help messages, as well as sound and graphic rewards, are available. To complete the Workout, the student needs to play at least six rounds, each containing ten randomly selected questions from several skill areas. To pass the Workout, the student must make five correct choices for each skill. The bar at the bottom of the screen first shows how far along he is in the whole Workout and then continues to show how far along he is in the current round.
Wrap-up (follows the Workout): The Wrap-up, which consists of four questions, does not affect the student's total score, but it gives him a different way to see what he has learned.
Summary-Workout: At the end of each round a summary screen will show how the student did. The student gets a star for each correct answer. Red stars show correct answers for the current round. Gray stars show correct answers for preceding rounds. When the student has five stars in a skill area, he has passed it. When he has gotten five stars in all skill areas, he has finished the Workout. The bar at the bottom of the screen indicates how many skills the student has passed in the Workout.

FINALS: The student is tested on the same skills but with some different texts from those used in the Tryout. He will be given three texts for each skill. To pass a skill, the student must make at least two correct choices. The bar at the bottom of the screen shows how much of the Tryout he has completed.
Summary-Finals: When the student has finished all the questions, a summary screen will show how he did. A check next to a skill lets the student know he has passed.

PROGRAM HELP FEATURES
The program provides three help features. First, the Warm-up, individual skill drill, gives the student the opportunity to focus on a specific skill. A check next to a skill on the Warm-up menu indicates that the student has mastered that skill. Checked skills may be chosen for additional drill. Second, for the Warm-up and the Workout, the sentence appears in its correct form regardless of the student's answer. Third, the computer gives the reason(s) for the correct answer.

HOME VERSION
A Home version of the program provides additional flexibility. It is appropriate for:
    Teachers who wish to assign independent work for students
    Teachers who teach distance learning programs
    Self-motivated people interested in improving their skills
    Home school settings

The Home version has the same scope, sequence, and printing features as the School versions. It tracks and bookmarks the work of two students, but it does not permit user entry into the teacher record management system.

To facilitate distance learning, each time a student completes a round, a progress report is automatically saved as a file that may be e-mailed to an instructor. This progress-to-date file has an MPR extension and contains the same information a student gets when he prints from the summary screen. Student access to this file is through the Progress Reports folder in the Start menu of the Home version.

Students may purchase Home versions of the software directly from Merit.

HOME VERSION PROGRESS REPORT VIEWER
The School versions do not generate MPR files but they contain a Viewer program. When you double-click the Home version MPR progress-to-date file on a system that has a School version of the program installed, the file will open in a password-protected Viewer program. Type the password in the password box and press OK. You will be alerted if the file has been altered. If it is unaltered, you may view or print it out from the Viewer program.

The progress-to-date file can also be opened with the Windows system Notepad or Wordpad programs, but these programs will not notify you if the file has been altered.

EVALUATION VERSION NOTE
The Evaluation version of the software includes the Viewer program and, for convenience, automatically saves the MPR progress-to-date file at the end of each round. MPR files can be accessed through the Progress Reports folder in the Start menu.

LOGGING ON AND CLASS MANAGEMENT
We suggest that teachers set up their class codes before the students log on to the program for the first time. Type the password in the password box and press OK.
The program opens to a Log on screen with all previously entered class codes and student names. Students must select their class code in order to see the list of students in their class. They then click on their name to begin the program. If they are logging on for the first time, students select their class code, click the New Student icon, and fill in their name on the form that appears on the screen.

SCORING
In addition to the end of round progress-to-date report, detailed scoring of how a student does for each skill in each of the Main Menu parts is presented in the Teacher Program Manager (TPM).

TEACHER PROGRAM MANAGER (TPM)
The Teacher Program Manager (TPM) does not have an icon on your Start menu.

After installation you must start a program to create its .MAV file.  All .MAV files will be kept according to the way you configure your setup; see the Location of Record Files section of this TPM guide.

To access the .MAV files, use Find on the Start menu or use Find under the Tools menu of the Windows Explorer.

Search for *.MAV to get a listing of all .MAV files on your system.

To open the Teacher Program Manager (TPM), double-click the .MAV file for the program you want to see. This will automatically open the TPM.

You can also double-click the TPM.EXE icon (default install is C:\Meritav\TPM) and navigate to the program level you wish to see.

Type the password in the password box and press OK.

MENU BAR
The Menu Bar lists everything available in the TPM. Press the question mark icon to access the online Help file for details about the functions of the TPM.

Student's record file keeps track of the student's name, class code, date last played, total rounds, and skill scores for each part played. Teachers may insert a comment in the teacher's comment box. The message will be saved until the student sees it.

CONFIGURATIONS may be accessed from the Menu Bar or the Drop down menu. There are preferences for sounds and graphics as well as for the number of texts the student sees and the number of correct answers the student needs in order to pass. The maximum numbers will vary from part to part.

Other items facilitate the teacher's use of student records. These include zoom, hiding fields, and selection of individual records to print or delete. A Help file for all TPM features may be accessed from the Menu Bar.

Configurations TECH TIP for setting the same configurations for each level of a program:
Set them on one level.
Open that level's folder in an Explorer window and copy the game.ini file.
Paste this game.ini file to each program level that you wish to have the same configurations.

LOCATION OF RECORD FILES
The first time a Merit Audio Visual Windows 95/98/NT program is played on a computer, a dialog box appears where path options can be selected. Record file set-up Help will guide your selection. Your selection will become the default configuration for all Merit AV Windows 95/98/NT programs that you subsequently install to your machine. Changes can be made by using a text editor to edit the meritav.ini file in the Windows directory or by deleting the meritav.ini file and resetting the location of the record files in the dialog box when you next sign in to a Merit AV Windows 95/98/NT program.

TROUBLESHOOTING
If you encounter an error message when running an evaluation version of the program just after installing it, you may have started it before Windows made all the resources available.

Please take the following steps:
1. Delete the *.mav file for the program if one was created.
2. Reboot your machine.
3. Restart the program.

BUG REPORTS
If you get an error or have any problems with our software, we would like to know about it in order to fix it.

Please let us know the following:
1. the error message or problem
2. what you were doing just prior to the occurrence
3. your system configuration
4. if you are able to replicate the problem


WRITING FITNESS

LEVEL 1

1. Run-on sentences: use of end punctuation
2. Agreement of subject and verb in number and person
3. Misplaced modifiers: adverbs and prepositional phrases
4. Sentence fragments: prepositional phrases
5. Nominative case of pronouns
6. Parallel structure
7. Comma fault
8. Double negatives, with not or no
9. Agreement of personal pronoun and antecedent
10. Fused sentences
11. Agr. of subject and verb: with a contraction or preceding subject
12. Sentence fragments: infinitive phrases

LEVEL 2

1. Run-on sentences: use of end punctuation or coordinating conj.
2. Misplaced modifiers: participial phrases
3. Agr. of subject and verb: collective nouns or nouns that look plural
4. Parallel structure, II
5. Sentence fragments: participial phrases
6. Double negatives, with no one, nothing, nobody, never
7. Fused sentences, II
8. Dangling modifiers
9. Objective case of pronouns
10. Comma fault, II
11. Agreement of subject and verb, with intervening phrases
12. Sentence fragments: incomplete or incorrect verb forms
13. Agr. of pron. / antecedent: collective nouns or nouns that look plural
14. Split constructions

LEVEL 3

1. Run-on sentences: use of end punctuation, semicolon, or sub. conj.
2. Misplaced modifiers: phrases and clauses
3. Case of pronouns after 'than' or 'as'
4. Sentence fragments: dependent clauses with sub. conjunctions
5. Agreement of subject and verb, with 'neither--nor' or 'either--or'
6. Comma fault, III
7. Double negatives, with barely, scarcely, hardly
8. Parallel structure, III
9. Agreement of indefinite pronoun and antecedent
10. Fused sentences, III
11. Dangling modifiers, II
12. Sentence fragments: dependent clauses with relative pronouns
13. Agreement of subject and verb, with indefinite pronouns
14. Tense sequence



Merit Audio Visual
copyright 2000

