Style Tools for Writing
Description
Style guides are published by various organizations in order to ensure
that their writers use terminology correctly and consistently. It would
be useful to have the style rules online, so that they can be used to
assist in writing theses and papers. This project investigates using
Grail+ to capture and execute style rules found in current style guides.
Tasks
- construct finite-state machines that contain the rules of one
style guide (probably the Globe and Mail or Economist
style guide)
- write a controlling program that applies these FSMs to
text files and generates diagnostic output
- integrate the style FSM with an interactive editing
environment, or construct one specifically for use with the
style FSM
- implement several other style guides, and construct a
program to interactively switch between them
Difficulty
The first two tasks can be done in a 4-month work term by a motivated
student who learns how to use Grail+ quickly. Some of the style rules
will be easy to implement, since they are simple exact string matches.
Others may be very difficult to handle properly, since they would require
the ability to parse English; in such cases we will hope for a reasonable
heuristic or else simply ignore the rule. The second two tasks would
require a 4th-year term project, or possibly an internship. The amount
of programimng required depends on how much effort is necessary for
integration with an interactive system.
Value to the student
The project would be of interest to students who intend to do further
work in text processing or parsing. It would also have the side effect
of improving one's own command of written English.
Top of page
Grail+ home page