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1980-01-01
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Documentation for Itwrite
Complete documentation is on
Hardcopy manual.
(c) Copyright Gail M. Drauden and Associates, 1988
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business
Machines corporation
MS-Dos is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation
dBASE dBASE III and dBASE III Plus are trademarks of Ashton-
Tate Corporation
Table of Contents
Section 1: The dBASE file
Creating the dBase File Can I have Additional Fields on the File? 2
Section 2: Entering Information
Text for the Question and the Choices
The Keep Toggle and the Answer Key
Section 3: Running ITWRITE
Writing a Test File
Writing a Key
SECTION 1:
The dBASE FILE
Purpose of Program
Program ITWRITE reads multiple choice items stored on a
dBASE III or dBASE III Plus file. The program formats these
items in a report format suitable for test administration
and writes the formatted items onto a plain (ASCII) text
file.
In order to use the program, you must create a dBASE III
file in the proper format, store your items in the file,
select the items you want to use, and run ITWRITE. You can
then edit the resulting plain text file (on most word
processors) to add page numbers, page breaks, headings, or
any other format changes you might wish. Finally, (using
your word processor) print the finished text.
Creating the dBASE File
Program ITWRITE looks for specific content in the first 8
positions of the dBASE III file. Variables may have any
name and any length, but the first eight variables in the
structure must have a particular content, type and be in a
particular order, as follows:
STRUCTURE FOR DBASE III FILE
Variable Type Size Content
in
Position
1 C up to 250 Question (stem) text
2 C up to 250 Text for choice a
3 C up to 250 Text for choice b
4 C up to 250 Text for choice c
5 C up to 250 Text for choice d
6 C up to 250 Text for choice e
7 L 1 Indicates whether
item should be printed
Y y T t for yes
N n F f or blank for no
8 C 1 Answer key to
question
a,b,c,d, or e
Can I Have Additional Fields on the File?
You may have as many additional fields as you wish on the
file, as long as the first 8 fields of the structure are
defined as indicated above.
You might want to have a field for the source of the items,
book references for the item answers, item statistics, codes
for the type of content or job family, and so on.
SECTION 2:
ENTERING INFORMATION
We will use the file "myitems.dbf" as an example.
We are looking at record 2 in this example.
Text for the Question and the Choices
The first variable in the file is always the question (stem)
of the multiple choice item, in this case The author of the
"Catcher in the Rye" is...
The next five variables allow five possible answers. Note
several things about these multiple choice responses...
1. You DO NOT include the item number with the text. If it
is important for you to keep the item number on the file,
create your own variable later in the file structure and
record the item number. The program automatically numbers
items from 1 to the number of items you choose. If you need
different item numbers (for example, if this is section 2 of
a test) you will have to change them yourself on a word
processor before printing the test. Note that if you need
the items in a particular order, you could sort them using
dBASE III before running ITWRITE.
2. You DO NOT include the letter a) or 1) with the text for
the choice. The letter is added automatically by the
program. Choices will receive letters a to e
3. You DO NOT need to use all of the choices (but you must
have the fields in your structure). The program will
automatically check to see whether there is any text other
than blanks in the field. If there is no text in the field,
no letter, no text and no space is left on the resulting
test for this response. If there is no e) response for
example, the test will be formatted for only 4 responses.
If there are only two responses, for instance a) true b)
false, the program will format the results for just these
two responses. Leave response fields that you are not going
to need blank, and the program will take care of the
formatting.
The Keep Toggle and the Answer Key
Variable (or field) 1 is the question text. Variables (or
fields) 2 to 6 are the five multiple choice texts.
Variable 7 is the keep toggle and Variable 8 is the answer
key.
THE KEEP TOGGLE
Variable 7 is the keep toggle. ITWRITE will only print
items which have a T t Y or y in this field. The purpose of
this "keep toggle" is to allow you to go through your file
and mark only those items that you want to keep--these items
will be numbered and formatted for the test. Items with F f
N n or blank in this field will not be printed by ITWRITE.
Variable 7 is a logical field in the database structure.
THE ANSWER KEY
Variable 8 is the answer key. It indicates the correct
answer to the multiple choices. You should enter an upper
or lower case a b c d or e.
Of course, you need to keep a record of the correct answer
for you item. There is a special reason that the answer key
is one of the eight required fields. In the next section on
running the program you will find out that to run ITWRITE
you just say the name of the program, your input .dbf file,
and the output file. However, if you add k to the end of
these commands, ITWRITE will print the correct answer at the
bottom of each item. This will give you a hard copy answer
key that you can keep in your files. When you are making
the final run in printing the test that you are going to
administer, print a key as well. In this way, you will have
no problems of searching through the original file to locate
the item and you won't need to worry about someone altering
the dBASE file before you print your key.
If you are working from a large data base and wish to keep
track of a lot of the information about the items on your
test, remember that you can also use dBASE III's report
command. You could, for example, create a report form that
had the question, the answer, the source, the item category
number, and so on, if you keep this type of additional
information on your file.
SECTION 3:
RUNNING ITWRITE
Writing a Test File
You should run ITWRITE from the DOS command line. You can
run it from within dBASE if you have enough memory to use
the ! or Run commands in dBase.
ITWRITE reads a dBASE III or III Plus file. The program
formats these items into the format of a final test and
writes this to a plain text file. You will need to tell
ITWRITE the name of your dBASE III file: myfile.dbf
the name of a file to write the text on: myout
Your dBASE file must have a .dbf extension (which dBASE III
always writes automatically) but you don't have to tell the
program. It will automatically add .dbf to the first
filename if you don't write it in.
To run the program, you say the name of the program
the name of your input file and the name of your output
file
like this:
ITWRITE A:MYITEMS B:TEST1OUT
or like this:
C:ITWRITE A:CLRKITEM.DBF A:TEST4
Your output file will be created by ITWRITE onto the drive
that you specify in the filename. B:TEST1OUT will be
created on the B: drive. Remember in DOS that the first
part of a filename can have only 8 characters, and the
extension (the part after the period) can have only 3.
Writing a Key
ITWRITE will also print the items in test form and write the
correct answer under each item. To print this type of key
you need only change the name of your output file and add
the letter k at the end of the usual ITWRITE commands. To
obtain keys for the tests in the examples given in the last
section, you would type:
ITWRITE A:MYITEMS B:TEST1KEY K
or like this:
C:ITWRITE A:CLRKITEM.DBF A:T4KEY k
Note that the the output file name should be changed so
that the test format file isn't destroyed by being
overwritten.
Output from Printing File
From a Word Processor
On most word processors, you can read the ITWRITE text file
as though it had been created by the word processor. Add
page breaks and any other changes you wish to make, and
print it like any other file. Note that there is only a 2
space margin on the original ITWRITE text file. ITWRITE
assumes that your word processor will automatically add a
margin (as most do). The ITWRITE text file is formatted
to fit within standard word processor margin settings.
Using Word Processors
To Edit and Print
WordStar
To edit the ITWRITE output file in WordStar, choose the D
option from the WordStar menu, and when asked for the file
name, give the name of the output file you created with
ITWRITE. You can then edit the file. You may need to space
some items down (using the return or enter key) to make the
page breaks come out properly. You may also wish to add
additional instructions, etc. When you are ready to print
the file, save the file (cntrl KD) and use the WordStar
print option from the menu. WordStar usually adds page
numbers automatically, unless your version was configured
not to do so.
WordPerfect
To edit an ITWRITE output file from WordPerfect, use shift
F10 to open the document, and give the name of the ITWRITE
output file as the document to be edited. Use Alt F8 1 to
add page numbers to the document. Use Shift F7 to print the
file.
WORD (4.0)
To edit an ITWRITE output file in Word, call up the file
using transfer load. Be sure to add the "." if your file
has no 3 letter final extension. That is, if you call your
file MYFILE tell Word it is MYFILE. with the period.
Or, before you call Word, rename the ITWRITE output file to
a file with a "doc" extension as follows:
At the DOS prompt, you would say: RENAME MYFILE MYFILE.DOC
Use Print Option Repaginate and yes to see where page breaks
will fall. Use Control+Shift+Enter to define page breaks
where you want them.
Use Format Division Page-Numbers to add page numbers to your
document. (Hint, to start numbering on a particular page,
make the top of that page a new division).
Other Word Processors
We have not tried ITWRITE output files with word processors
other than the above three. ITWRITE output files are
straight ASCII files, with endline marks at the end of each
line of text. Most word processors, somewhere buried in
their documentation, have information on reading plain ASCII
files.
Specifications
ITWRITE is written in Turbo C. It runs completely
independently of dBASE.
ITWRITE should run on IBM-XTs and compatibles, under MS-DOS.
We have run it on a Leading Edge, a Cordata (8088), and a
Compaq Deskpro (8086).
ITWRITE writes a standard ASCII file, with end of line marks
at the end of each line of text.