15. A system for identifying a discourse element of an essay, the system comprising: an input device, wherein the input device receives an essay; a first processing device for determining the presence of each of a predetermined set of features in each sentence of the essay; a second processing device for calculating a probability that each sentence in the essay should be assigned to a discourse element category; a third processing device for selecting one or more sentences in the essay that should be assigned to the discourse element category; and a display device for displaying each of the one or more sentences that should be assigned to the discourse element category.
15. A system for identifying a discourse element of an essay, the system comprising: an input device, wherein the input device receives an essay; a first processing device for determining the presence of each of a predetermined set of features in each sentence of the essay; a second processing device for calculating a probability that each sentence in the essay should be assigned to a discourse element category; a third processing device for selecting one or more sentences in the essay that should be assigned to the discourse element category; and a display device for displaying each of the one or more sentences that should be assigned to the discourse element category. 19. The system of claim 15 wherein the second processing device utilizes a multivariate Bernoulli model.