Knowledge of Word Frequency as an Aid for Text Editing

Abstract

In this chapter we will consider how a writer’s memory for his own writing may influence his ability to edit with a word processor. Word processing systems provide the ability to search for character strings automatically. This option allows the writer to locate segments of text quickly in order to make editing changes. In many systems, one of the most efficient ways to locate a particular segment is to search for a unique word that is used only in that segment. Writers’ ability to take advantage of this option is dependent on their ability to recognize unique words in their own manuscripts. The research described here investigated the ability of four female subjects to locate such unusual words. Two procedures were used. First, each subject was shown a series of isolated words from her manuscript and was asked to estimate the number of times she had used each word. Second, each subject was asked to go through her manuscript and mark each word that she thought she had used only once. Both procedures allowed us to examine the writer’s knowledge of single-occurrence words that would be useful for searching with a word processor. The first procedure also allowed us to examine the subject’s ability to estimate frequency for words that were used more than once.