1. Sharing and Commenting for Collaboration and Immediate Feedback

Document sharing and comments provide students with opportunities to receive immediate feedback in the 24/7 classroom. Since Docs are stored online, students can work at school and at home from any computer with an Internet connection and they are more likely to revisit their work if they know someone else will be commenting on it. To insert a comment, just highlight some text in the body of the document and the comment will appear on the right side of the page.

2. Research Tool

Perhaps the most impressive Google Docs writing support to date is an integrated research tool that’s available right on the page. A basic search yields results relevant to the document and displays a variety of types of information beyond text  Useful content-specific buttons allow users to insert links, images,  maps, and citations into a document with the click of a button. Users can narrow a search to find only images, scholarly information and quotations. This powerful research tool provides students with convenient access to information in manageable chunks that are ready for use.

3. Smart Spell Checker with Grammar Support

A built in smart spell-checking system that uses the Google Search helps students to easily identify spelling and simple grammar errors as they type. Google’s online spell-checking service is more comprehensive than a typical dictionary because the Googlebot constantly crawls the web for new and popular definitions. The spell-checker actually grows and adapts with the web and it gets smarter all the time.  A context-sensitive grammar checker can distinguish between words like “too” and “to” in a sentence and make appropriate suggestions for corrections. While Word uses color coding to make distinctions between spelling and grammar errors, Google sticks with one color, but the suggestion box offers smart and appropriate suggestions.​