<i>Human Factors and Behavioral Science</i>: The<i>UNIX</i>™ Writer's Workbench Software: Rationale And Design

TLDR

The UNIX™ Writer's Workbench is a suite of programs that assist document production by evaluating and editing prose, including proofreaders, style analyzers, reformatters, and language reference tools. This paper outlines the rhetorical and psychological writing principles that guide the Workbench and details the human‑factor design principles employed in its development. The Workbench analyzes prose to suggest improvements, with its major programs judging writing quality according to the described principles.

Abstract

The UNIX™ Writer's Workbench software is a set of computer programs that help with two stages of document production: evaluation and editing. These programs analyze prose documents and suggest improvements. There are several types of programs: those that proofread, analyze style, and reformat the text in new ways, and those that provide information about the English language. This paper first describes the rhetorical and psychological writing principles that underlie the Writer's Workbench programs. It then describes the major Writer's Workbench programs and how they judge writing, based on these writing principles. Finally, it presents the human factors principles used in the design and development of the Writer's Workbench system.