A Text Planning Mechanism Using Individualized User Models

Abstract

This paper describes an on-line help system, which is designed to produce multiparagragh explanations in response to user's questions about computer terminology. A major component of this system is a text planning mechanism, which tries to decide on what to say and how to say it for answering the user's question. In order for the system to have the ability to provide different responses in accordance with user's level of expertise, a user model is constructed throughout a session, and then utilized to vary response by cutting off an unimportant, redundant plan during the course of planning. Furthermore, a focusing mechanism is introduced to ensure that the generated explanation is coherent.