Before designing an algorithm it is important to first understand what the problem is. Algorithms can be designed using pseudocode or a flowchart, and the standard notations of each should be known.

A few years ago I used an algorithm to help me write a science fiction story. Adam Hammond, an English professor, and Julian Brooke, a computer scientist, had created a program called SciFiQ, and ...

Could your next editor be a machine? Today, dozens of companies offer writing-critique services online, with programs that offer to catch your errors, tweak your use of passive voice, and improve ...

If this kind of writing can be done by a machine that doesn’t have a single thought in its head, what does that tell us about what we’ve been asking of students.

Other clients favor bloggy snarkiness. "It's no more difficult to write an irreverent story than it is to write a straightforward, AP-style story," says Larry Adams, Narrative Science's VP of product.

By the end of high school, writing evaluations should be hunting for subtleties that no standardized test – by definition – will ever be able to uncover.

In essence, algorithmic marking might reward the writing of “bullshit” – text written with little regard for the subject matter and solely to fulfil the algorithm’s criteria.