LIBRARY@SU-SCORE.ARPA (08/15/84)
From: C.S./Math Library <LIBRARY@SU-SCORE.ARPA>
[Forwarded from the Stanford bboard by Laws@SRI-AI.]
CLARIFY: Rand's On-Line Guide for Revising Technical Prose
Rand Report: N-2037-RC by M.E.Vaianan, N.Z.Shapiro and M.L.LaCasse 1983
This note describes the development and testing of CLARIFY, a computerized
writing aid designed to assist writers in revising technical prose. CLARIFY
is not a traditional readability formula; its design reflects research on how
English speakers understand sentences. CLARIFY flags sentences that have
certain patterns of nominalizations, prepositional phrases, and forms of the
verb to be. The choice of these features reflects research which suggests
that the dominant strategy employed by English speakers in interpreting
sentences is to assume a subject-verb-object (SVO) structure. The features
that CLARIFY flags are good surrogate indicators that a sentence does not have
an SVO structure, and therefore, that the initial interpretive strategy will
be unsuccessful. In developing CLARIFY, the authors tested various patterns
of these features, and obtained user comments about the system's usefulness
and effectiveness. Like all computerized writing aids, CLARIFY hs
limitations, which are discussed in the note. CLARIFY is in general use at
the Rand Corp. where it is also continuing to be tested 55pp**
**From Selected Rand Abstracts
Rand publications are located in the Green Library.
H. Llull