SDIdeas Announces Intuitive WRITE~NOW Software That Helps Students Improve and Enhance Writing Skills.

Business Editors/Education Writers

NOTE TO EDITORS: In the product name WRITE~NOW(TM) noted in this

news release, there is a tilde between WRITE and NOW. This

symbol may not appear properly in some systems.

CELEBRATION, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 16, 2003

WRITE~NOW(TM) Writing Software Immediately Evaluates and Provides

Feedback, Helping Students Improve and Enhance Writing Skills While

Eliminating Lengthy Grading Process for Teachers

SDIdeas, Inc., developer and marketer of innovative writing enhancement technology, today announced the availability of WRITE~NOW(TM) software, the writing enhancement technology that helps students of all ages to improve and enhance their writing skills, while eliminating the lengthy grading process for teachers. Dr. Steven Donahue, professor at Miami Dade College and features editor for Language Magazine, specifically developed the solution for the woes of America's poor writers.

WRITE~NOW helps students improve their writing skills by responding to open ended questions and providing feedback on composition, sentence structure, vocabulary and more. WRITE~NOW has been used at various colleges and universities nationally under an extensive test marketing program. Now, after numerous successful test deployments, WRITE~NOW is being made available to teachers and students worldwide.

"Poor writing is a national crisis, and Americans are less literate than ever," commented Dr. Steven Donahue, founder of SDIdeas, Inc. "A writing revolution, this online program evaluates students' papers by giving them robust feedback while detecting and correcting the proliferation of sub-standard usage, ranging from hip-hop to the truly obscene. We look forward to making this software available to students everywhere with the hope of vastly improving writing techniques."

The innovative software is being marketed by Jeffrey Loch, president and CEO of SDIdeas, who commented, "WRITE~NOW is a category-killer new product, a kind of silver bullet for those learning to master English writing. In fact, like the personal computer, synthetic hair dye and cell phones, this will change the way we live and work."

Loch further commented, "The powerful thing about WRITE~NOW is that essays can be scored or graded immediately. Conventional grading may take days, weeks or months, and by the time feedback is provided, the actual composition is far from memory. WRITE~NOW provides immediate feedback with links to remediation while the material is fresh in memory. Plus, it's an enormous time saver for teachers."

WRITE~NOW uses an artificial intelligence engine to score open-ended, constructed response questions. The product's proprietary response scoring technology evaluates written responses online in real-time to achieve scoring rates greater than or equal to the accuracy of two expert human scorers. Unlike earlier, less successful techniques that relied on generalized analysis of writing, WRITE~NOW creates a sample specific model - a "Polaroid" of the writing based on the use of a proprietary variation of the maximal Voronoi tessellation algorithm. This algorithm's performance has been shown to be superior to other methods, including the Bayesian network technology.

Steven Donahue further commented, "Essentially, this is 'thinking software' that replicates much of the drudgery faced by teachers in correcting student papers. WRITE~NOW software is a combination of 'heuristics', which offers synthesis of the important content and structural features it 'discovers' about submitted text essays. Finally, writing students can get true state-of- the-art feedback to improve their writing, and teachers can deal with higher-order thinking issues."

Donahue further explained, "For instance, a student recently wrote a paper in which she used the hip-hop term 'dawg' to mean a male friend, but the program caught it and suggested friend, buddy, soul-mate or acquaintance as better synonyms."

Jeffrey Loch states, "With a severe teacher shortage, this software empowers writers. For example, scores of students have literally jumped levels at Miami Dade College when using the software in their writing, because it is quicker for correcting first-draft writing than a legion of overburdened teachers. We are certain that WRITE~NOW will help large numbers of students improve their writing and help teachers enormously. The software provides a tremendous time savings for teachers, allowing them to do what they do best - teach."

WRITE~NOW consists of a variety of narrative, descriptive, persuasive, compare and contrast and other topics within multiple categories, allowing students to write either in school or at home with over 300 available questions in which to respond.

The product is currently available at various education institutions including Miami Dade College and will be made available shortly via direct response television and the Internet for $29.95. For purchase or more information, visit www.writenowabc.com.

About SDIdeas, Inc.

SDIdeas is the developer and marketer of innovative writing enhancement technology that intuitively helps students of all ages to improve upon their writing skills. Its cutting-edge WRITE~NOW product suite consists of WRITE~NOW Essay, WRITE~NOW Grammar, WRITE~NOW Pronunciation, WRITE~NOW Vocabulary and WRITE~NOW Danger English which alerts writers to any foul, slang or non-standard words. Dr. Steven Donahue, founder of SDIdeas, professor at Miami Dade College and features editor for Language Magazine, specifically developed the software to reduce the woes of America's poor writers and to meet the needs of students worldwide. For years he has used the power of technology to leverage learning for students around the globe. Beyond the classroom, the US Military has used the WRITE~NOW software for learning exotic languages such as Pashto and Dari, the languages of Afghanistan and Iraq. For more information, visit www.writenowabc.com.

All Trademarks Recognized.