biology

WYSIWYM (interaction technique)

WYSIWYM (interaction technique) is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand WYSIWYM (interaction technique) rather than just read about it. In short: What you see is what you meant (WYSIWYM) is a text editing interaction technique that emerged from two projects at University of Brighton. It allows users to create abstract knowledge representations such as those required by the Semantic Web using a natural language interface.

Key takeaways

WYSIWYM (interaction technique) belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect WYSIWYM (interaction technique) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of WYSIWYM (interaction technique) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

What you see is what you meant (WYSIWYM) is a text editing interaction technique that emerged from two projects at University of Brighton. It allows users to create abstract knowledge representations such as those required by the Semantic Web using a natural language interface. Natural language understanding (NLU) technology is not employed. Instead, natural language generation (NLG) is used in a highly interactive manner. The text editor accepts repeated refinement of a selected span of text as it becomes progressively less vacuous of authored semantics. Using a mouse, a text property held in the evolving text can be further refined by a set of options derived by NLG from a built-in ontology. An invisible representation of the semantic knowledge is created which can be used for multilingual document generation, formal knowledge formation, or any other task that requires formally specified information. The two projects at Brighton worked in the field of Conceptual Authoring to lay a foundation for further research and development of a Semantic Web Authoring Tool (SWAT). This tool has been further explored as a means for developing a knowledge base by those without prior experience with Controlled Natural Language tools.

See also Semantic markup OWL [Web Ontology Language] WYSIWYM Protégé (software)

References

External links Nguyen, Tu (2013). Generating Natural Language Explanations For Entailments In Ontologies. PhD thesis The Open University. Conceptual Authoring Archived 2006-08-23 at the Wayback Machine at Natural Language Generation group of the Open University SWAT: Semantic Web Authoring Tool research project WYSIWYM home page Archived 2007-05-12 at the Wayback Machine

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with WYSIWYM (interaction technique)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what WYSIWYM (interaction technique) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to WYSIWYM (interaction technique) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about WYSIWYM (interaction technique) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of WYSIWYM (interaction technique)

In research: WYSIWYM (interaction technique) appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses WYSIWYM (interaction technique) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: WYSIWYM (interaction technique) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Knowledge representation, Natural language generation, Ontology (information science), so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for WYSIWYM (interaction technique) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study WYSIWYM (interaction technique) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what WYSIWYM (interaction technique) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain WYSIWYM (interaction technique) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is WYSIWYM (interaction technique) in simple terms?

Why does WYSIWYM (interaction technique) matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study WYSIWYM (interaction technique)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on WYSIWYM (interaction technique).