TEASPN: Framework and Protocol for Integrated Writing Assistance Environments
This addresses the integration bottleneck for writers and developers, enabling easier access to NLP advancements in writing software, though it is incremental as it builds on existing technologies.
The authors tackled the problem of high development costs preventing integration of language technologies like grammatical error correction into writing software, by proposing TEASPN, a protocol and open-source framework that standardizes communication, resulting in users rating their writing experience favorably and writing more fluent text.
Language technologies play a key role in assisting people with their writing. Although there has been steady progress in e.g., grammatical error correction (GEC), human writers are yet to benefit from this progress due to the high development cost of integrating with writing software. We propose TEASPN, a protocol and an open-source framework for achieving integrated writing assistance environments. The protocol standardizes the way writing software communicates with servers that implement such technologies, allowing developers and researchers to integrate the latest developments in natural language processing (NLP) with low cost. As a result, users can enjoy the integrated experience in their favorite writing software. The results from experiments with human participants show that users use a wide range of technologies and rate their writing experience favorably, allowing them to write more fluent text.