The machines are set up so every time a document is opened the old copy is stored and you are working with a fresh one. This means the student and the teacher have a permenant record of all the changes and a history of the changing document. This also allows the student to return to any previous version at any time. We print out drafts and work repeatedly in writing conference groups to discuss changes. Group members discuss everyone's work and offer suggestions, comments etc.
Authors are free to accept or ignore changes.
The documents stay on the computer all year so students can revisit their work and make changes as the muses inspire them. A discussion of a piece of literature my become a comparison with another by the middle of the year. The computer is a great teaching tool for young writers. For a quick student understanding of how powerful a single change can be to a piece I have the students use the find and replace function to change a single word and read some of the the new document aloud. I brainstorm with the whole class with one student at the keyboard.