Jones, B. A., & Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J., & Barton, A. K., & Reese, D., & Pan, H. (2015, June), Writing-to-Learn-to-Program: Examining the Need for a New Genre in Programming Pedagogy  Paper presented at 2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Seattle, Washington. 10.18260/p.25114

\bibitem{asee_peer_25114}
  Jones, B. A., \& Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J., \& Barton, A. K., \& Reese, D., \& Pan, H. (2015, June), \emph{Writing-to-Learn-to-Program: Examining the Need for a New Genre in Programming Pedagogy}
  Paper presented at 2015 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Seattle, Washington.
  10.18260/p.25114

Bryan A. Jones, M. Jean Mohammadi-Aragh, Amy K. Barton, Donna Reese, and Hejia Pan.  "Writing-to-Learn-to-Program: Examining the Need for a New Genre in Programming Pedagogy".  2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Seattle, Washington, 2015, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2015.  https://peer.asee.org/25114 Internet.  11 Feb, 2025

\bibitem{asee_peer_25114}
  Bryan A. Jones, M. Jean Mohammadi-Aragh, Amy K. Barton, Donna Reese, and Hejia Pan.
  "Writing-to-Learn-to-Program: Examining the Need for a New Genre in Programming Pedagogy".
  \emph{2015 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Seattle, Washington, 2015, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2015.
  https://peer.asee.org/25114 Internet.  11 Feb, 2025

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_25114
author = "Bryan A. Jones, M. Jean Mohammadi-Aragh, Amy K. Barton, Donna Reese, and Hejia Pan"
title = "Writing-to-Learn-to-Program: Examining the Need for a New Genre in Programming Pedagogy"
booktitle = "2015 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2015"
month = "June"
address = "Seattle, Washington"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/25114}
number = {10.18260/p.25114}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -      Writing to Learn to Program using a Programmer’s Word Processor  As  educators,  we  have  trained  a  generation  of  illiterate  programmers.  Despite  myriads  of  documents that  software  engineering  should  (and  occasionally  actually  does)  produce,   such  as  requirements documents,  UML  diagrams  specifying  interfaces,  and  API  documentation  extraction  tools  (Javadoc, Doxygen,  etc.),  few  practicing  programmers  use  the  written  word  to  enable  them  to  produce  code. What  documentation  is  produced often bears little relationship to the actual implementation after the first major revision or refactoring of the program.  Writing  distinguishes  humans  from  animals,  making  thoughts  visible  while prompting reflection and deep understanding.  It  is  essential  in  almost  every  area  of  human  endeavor,  by  extending  our  abilities (memory,  recall, etc.) to enable us to solve complex problems that would otherwise be insoluble. Yet,  in the  context  of  software  engineering,  little  is  done  to  mediate  the  transference  of  ideas  to  code  with  the written  word.  While  external documentation serves to provide a conceptual framework for the externals of  a  program  (its  interfaces,  requirements,  and  specifications),  poorly  used, typically omitted comments provide  the  only  means  for  programmers  to  record  their  ideas,  along  with  the  implementation  they create.  How  have  we  created  a  system  designed  to  make  writing  as  difficult  and  inflexible  as  possible, forcing programmers to be coders, not writers?  Therefore,  we  propose  writing  to  learn  to  program  (WTLTP),  in  which  writing  is  intermingled  with  the program  itself,  following the literate programming paradigm. While students are typically given  an overall goal  their  program  must  satisfy  and  then  instructed  in  specific  constructs  (loops,  functions,  recursive algorithms,  etc.),  the  struggle   most  students  face  is  to  find  the  set  of  constructs  that  satisfies  the  goal. This  is  the  creative  process,  the  heart  of  any  programming  exercise,  and  it  is  typically  omitted  from  all classroom  instruction.  Experts  can  intuitively  perform  this  mapping  from  goals  to  code,  while  most novices  struggle  with  this  step. This is the point at which WTLTP can  be of immense benefit because by providing  the  novice  with  the  opportunity  to   reflect,  in  writing,  on  goals  and  structures,  visualizing  their thought process within a document.  To  assist  students  in  viewing  a  program  as   a  document,  rather  than  as  a  series  of  instructions  for  a computer,  the  CodeChat  extensions   contributed  by  the  authors  to  the  Enki  text  editor  provide  a WYSIWYG­like  environment  that  shows  a  both  the  unformatted  source  code  of  a  program  side­ by­side  with  a  typeset  HTML  version  of  the  program.  Changes  made  to  the  source  code  are immediately rendered to the web page, encouraging them to treat their program as a document. Through the  writing  process,  the  unconscious  art  form  of  programming  becomes  a  concrete  reality  in  which students  begin  to  discover  what  they  do  not  understand  and  find  solutions  to  problems  previously insoluble.                                                                               Fig. 1: CodeChat in Enki, show source code on the left and the corresponding web page on the right, complete with typeset equations and plots produced by the underlying Matlab code. 
AU  - Bryan A. Jones
AU  - M. Jean Mohammadi-Aragh
AU  - Amy K. Barton
AU  - Donna Reese
AU  - Hejia Pan
CY  - Seattle, Washington
DA  - 2015/06/14
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Writing-to-Learn-to-Program: Examining the Need for a New Genre in Programming Pedagogy
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/25114
DO  - 10.18260/p.25114
ER  -