Pressto Thesis: a better way to write

Who needs a better way to write?

PROBLEM: The Writing Spiral

Generally, students are poor writers and don’t get the instruction in school they need to improve their writing skills. Many teachers are not great writers themselves because writing instruction, even at the college level, is generally poor.(1) Further, students don’t like to write because writing in school is tedious, especially when many learn to write using social media, which encourages quick, short snippets of unstructured communication. Unengaged students and ill-equipped teachers combine to create a classroom that dreads writing instruction. This inertia inevitably means less attention is given to writing instruction and then, to even more frustration. And so on…This downward cycle begins in elementary school and just continues, leaving many students ill equipped for college and careers where they are expected to already be good writers. Students leave K-12 ill equipped to write effectively and unprepared to navigate a world full of misinterpretation and ambiguity that actually places great value on good writing (e.g., applying to college or for a job). At Pressto, we call this The Writing Spiral.

SOLUTION: Pressto and the Stairway

Pressto unwinds this spiral by first by making writing fun for students beginning in early elementary school. It gives students instant feedback while they write, making writing easier and more engaging, and it gives them quick gratification as they produce their first printed Pressto in a matter of minutes. This alone makes teachers’ lives easier as they don’t need to spend time convincing students to write because with Pressto, students want to write. Then, it saves teachers time by giving them tools to quickly evaluate the submitted work and provide specific feedback to each student. Pressto tracks improvement for each student and provides instructional aids so teachers can individualize writing instruction and help each student become a better writer. Using Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) basics, each student will also become a better evaluator of things written by other people, and thus a more informed digital citizen. Best of all, Pressto is standards aligned for all 50 states so all of the work in Pressto serves an educational purpose. Pressto and a better equipped, more confident teacher, turns the writing spiral into an upward writing stairway.

(1) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/0091732X18821125