Tape recordings of telephone conversations of Consolidated Edison's system operator (SO) and his immediate superior (CSO), beginning an hour before the 1977 New York blackout, were analyzed for indications of psychological stress. (SO was responsible for monitoring and switching power loads within the Con Ed network.) Utterances from the two individuals were analyzed to yield several pitch and amplitude statistics. To assess the perceptual correlates of stress, four groups of listeners used a seven-point scale to rate the stress of SO and CSO from either randomized vocal utterances or transcripts of the randomized utterances. Results indicated that whereas CSO's vocal pitch increased significantly with increased situational stress, SO's pitch decreased. Listener ratings of stress from the voice were positively related to average pitch. It appears that listener's stereotype of psychological stress includes elevated pitch and amplitude levels, as well as their increased variability.

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This paper describes the Writer's Workbench programs, which analyze English prose and suggest improvements. Some limited data on the use of the Writer's Workbench and its acceptance are also presented. The Writer's Workbench incorporates the sryle and diction programs, described in a previous paper of this TRANSACTIONS, into a more extensive system to help writers improve their writing. The system runs under the UNIXTM operating system, and includes programs to: 1) proofread, 2) comment on stylistic features of text, and 3) provide reference information about the English language. Among other writing faults, the programs detect split infinitives, errors in spelling and punctuation, overly long sentences, wordy phrases, and passive sentences.

The UNI)(f'M Writer's Workbench software is a set of computer programs that help with two stages of document production: evaluation and editing. These programs analyze prose documents and suggest improvements. There are several types of programs: those that proofread, analyze style, and reformat the text in new ways, and those that provide information about the English language. This paper first describes the rhetorical and psychological writing principles that underlie the Writer's Workbench programs. It then describes the major Writer's Workbench programs and how they judge writing, based on these writing principles. Finally, it presents the human factors principles used in the design and development of the Writer's Workbench system.

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