Detecting and presenting errors for Swedish writers at work

The aim of this paper is to discuss the problems of detecting and presenting errors using computer supported language checking. The development of an language checking tool for Swedish to support writing at work will serve as an example. At The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden, there has been a project on developing a writing support environment for supporting the writing process in its different stages (Posten Brev, Prima Vista, 1994). The program will be used by the Swedish Postal Service in their writing courses for business writing. There is also a will to make the program generally available for writers at work. From a scientific point of view the program is a useful tool for experiments and tests on writing support. It is not a full-fledged professional program, rather a prototype developed in Hypercard, but hopefully still usable as a pedagogical and practical tool in the writing courses of the Swedish Postal Service. Beyond supporting the early stages of the writing process such as idea-generation and organisation, the program has an interactive tool for supporting proofreading in Swedish. The language checking tool uses a pattern matching technique that is more or less restricted to finding errors and style deviations on the levels of orthography and phraseology (Domeij, 1994). Still, the experience of constructing the language checking tool has raised problems that, in most cases, generally hold for more or less advanced tools of the same kind.