Experimental Studies in Computer-Assisted Correction of Unorthographic Text

A study of the feasibility of applying an experimental dictionary and a digital computer to proofreading led to investigation of the nature of conversion errors and development of computer programs for correction of unorthographic machine-readable text. The correction programs were tested with a sample of unproofread technical abstracts with a large number of possible errors. The error-correction program has three levels: the first level corrects commonly misspelled words through watching with a stored dictionary; the second level treats common misspelling patterns not readily amenable to direct dictionary correction. Error patterns most probably associated with human operation of transcription devices, or with limitations or malfunctions of conversion equipment, are dealt with by the third level. Beyond the first level, the program can apply nine error-correction procedures. The general structure and organization of the program is illustrated in Fig. 1 of the text. Because selections of alternative spellings are combinatorial, the correction algorithms must test several hundred candidates per error, on the average. Hence a study explored system design characteristics to increase the efficiency of correction procedures.