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EVALUATION MATERIALS
The following materials contain information and exercises to help you
evaluate the TCN program.
EVALUATION MATERIALS 1
GENERAL 1
PARSE ENGINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
NOTEBOOK FUNCTIONS 2
LEXICOGRAPHY FUNCTIONS 2
MISCELLANEOUS FUNCTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
EVALUATION EXERCISES 3
ON-SCREEN EXERCISES 3
CROSS REFERENCING EXERCISES 3
Cross Reference Exercises for Synonyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Creating a Synonym Heading 4
Now to access the heading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Deleting cross references to all occurrences of a word . . . . . . 7
Now to cross reference a specific occurrence of a word 7
Deleting a reference to a specific occurrence of a word . . . . . . 8
CREATING A SUBJECT HEADING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
A Timely Exercise 9
CONTINUING YOUR EVALUATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Continuing Evaluation of the Notebook Function 10
Review of Provided On-Screen Comments 10
Producing Your Own Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Lexicography Functions 11
Word and Clause Profiles 11
Parameter Searches 11
Vocabulary Lists 11
Parse Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Registration 12
Continuing Your Study of the Constitution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
GENERAL
The TCN program has 14 options on the Main Menu that can be grouped as
follows:
1. Parse engine
2. Notebook functions
3. Lexicography functions (analysis based on word complexity or use)
4. Miscellaneous
A brief description of each group follows.
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PARSE ENGINE
Main Menu option 10 is the parse engine.
You don't have to know anything about the parse engine at this point
except that it exists. It is provided with the TCN package so you can
update your package if the Constitution is amended. It is discussed here
to support the descriptions of the notebook functions and the lexicography
functions.
For input, the parse engine uses an ASCII file that contains the text of
the Constitution. Preparation of this file is covered in MM10.DOC and
USATEXT.DOC. So you can begin evaluating the TCN program without learning
all that material, 3 complete sets of parse engine output are provided
with this evaluation copy of the TCN program.
The output of the parse engine includes encrypted files that contain the
text of the Constitution and an exhaustive index of every word. The
notebook functions use this part of the parse engine output.
Other output produced by the parse engine is used by the lexicography
functions.
NOTEBOOK FUNCTIONS
Main Menu options 2, 3, 4, and 5 are the notebook functions. These are
the functions that lend the word "Notebook" to the title of the TCN
program. You can use the notebook functions to:
1. Review provided comments about the Constitution and rights.
2. Modify, output (to ASCII file or printer), or delete provided
comments about the Constitution and rights.
3. Create, review, modify, output (to ASCII file or printer), or
delete your own comments about the Constitution and rights.
The TCN program's interactive search and indexing features are part of the
notebook functions.
The notebook functions are introduced by exercises in this file.
LEXICOGRAPHY FUNCTIONS
Main Menu options 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, and 13 are the lexicography functions.
You can use the lexicography functions to:
1. Review or output (to ASCII file or printer)
word profile data
2
clause profile data
vocabulary lists
2. Review, edit, or output (to ASCII file or printer) syllable data
3. Review or output (to ASCII file or printer)
lists of WORDS that fit user specified lexicography parameters
lists of CLAUSES that fit user specified lexicography parameters
MISCELLANEOUS FUNCTIONS
Main Menu options 1 and 14 are miscellaneous functions. Main Menu option
1 lets you exit the TCN program. Main Menu option 14 tells you how to
register the TCN program.
EVALUATION EXERCISES
The following materials contain a battery of exercises to introduce you to
the notebook functions of the TCN program.
ON-SCREEN EXERCISES
A set of on-screen exercises is part of the TCN program itself. These
exercises are intended to help you get started with the program. To
access the on-screen exercises, proceed as follows:
1) Start the TCN program as described previously.
2) When the Main Menu appears, type 4 and press ENTER.
3) Notice that the title 'Exercises' is highlighted.
4) Press ENTER.
5) Press the TAB key twice and scroll through the exercises using the
PG UP, PG DN, HOME and END keys. Try some of the things the exercises
suggest.
CROSS REFERENCING EXERCISES
Generally, cross referencing procedures are analogous for synonyms and
subjects. The four major steps are:
1) Create a heading, if it does not already exist.
2) Access the desired heading.
3) Review the heading while adding or deleting related references or
comments.
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4) Exit to the Main Menu to save changes.
Steps 3 and 4 are identical for subjects and synonyms. Steps 1 and 2 are
analogous, but not identical. The on-screen exercises have taken you
through step 2 and the review portion of step 3 for subjects. The
following exercises take you through all 4 steps for synonyms. Following
that, a final exercise shows you how to create a subject heading.
Specific procedures for subjects and synonyms are contained in files
MM4.DOC and MM5.DOC, respectively.
Cross Reference Exercises for Synonyms
If you have just performed the on-screen exercises, you have to get the
default seminar to begin this exercise. The following steps do that.
They are not required steps in typical cross referencing procedures.
1) Select option 3 from the Main Menu.
2) Press the HOME key to highlight the top seminar, Sample Subjects
and Synonyms Cross References.
3) Press ENTER.
Ok, we are back at the Main Menu now ready to begin the synonym cross
referencing exercise. The following steps create a heading for the word
Power. Other parts of the exercise will cross reference synonyms to the
word power as used in the Constitution. As an introduction to the
comments editor, you will be provided with a question to type in.
Creating a Synonym Heading
1) Select option 5 from the Main Menu.
NOTE: On 2 of the lowest lines of the screen just above the function
key mnemonics, messages appear to advise you what functions are
available. Note these messages as you go through the procedure.
They will help you operate the program without documentation.
2) When the SYNONYMS screen appears, press the F6 key.
3) Type the word power and press ENTER.
Notice the words power, Power, Powers, powers at the top of the
left column. You are already familiar with use of the F6 key
from the on-screen exercises.
4) Using the up or down arrow keys, highlight the word Power,
singular, initial capital letter.
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5) Press ENTER.
Notice that the word Power is inserted above the word rights in
the middle column. Its placement is explained in MM5.DOC. The
heading is now created.
Now to access the heading . . .
1) Press the TAB key once.
Notice the highlighting is removed from the left column and now
appears in the middle column.
2) Using the up and down arrow keys, highlight the word Power in the
middle column.
3) Press ENTER.
Notice the list of words in the middle column disappears and the
title block over the middle column changes. The highlighting is
removed from the middle column and now appears in the title block
of the middle column.
The heading is accessed. In this exercise, we accessed the
heading immediately after creating it. This is perfectly ok, but
it is not required. You can do other things first if you want
to.
Now to cross reference some phrases . . .
1) First, press the F2 key.
Don't be alarmed by the blank screen. When F2 is pressed while
the heading in the title block is highlighted, all cross
referenced phrases are displayed. Since you haven't cross
referenced anything yet, a blank screen shows exactly what is
cross referenced.
2) Press the ESC key to get the SYNONYMS screen back.
3) Press the TAB key once and notice it goes into the comments
column. It skips the middle column since the middle column is
presently empty.
4) Press the TAB key and notice the highlighting returns to the left
column. If you are following this exercise exactly, the word Power
is highlighted. The program keeps track of this sort of thing for
you.
5) Press ENTER.
Notice the word Power appears in the middle column. But isn't
that what already happened? Well, yes and no. To see the
difference . . .
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6) Press the TAB key once. The highlighting moves to the title
block of the middle column.
7) Press F2. Hey, no blank screen this time!
All occurrences of the word Power are now cross referenced as
synonyms to the heading Power. Of course, any word can be
considered a synonym to itself. So doing this is ok, but it is
not required. You identify synonyms to the program; it does not
find them for you or even give you hints.
8) Press the ESC key to get the SYNONYMS screen back.
9) Press the TAB key once and notice where it goes.
10) Press the TAB key again and type, "How does the use of the word
Power in the US Constitution compare or contrast with the use of the
word rights therein?" Congratulations! You've just entered comments
using the comments editor. More information about it is contained in
the file EDITOR.DOC. (You can access that file using the help on
help feature at the Main Menu.)
11) Press the TAB key and notice the highlighting back in the left
column.
12) Using the up and down arrow keys, highlight the word power,
singular, lower case.
13) Press ENTER.
Notice that power now appears in the middle column.
14) Highlight Powers and press ENTER to cross reference all
occurrences.
15) Highlight powers and press ENTER to cross reference all
occurrences.
16) Using the F6 key, find the word authority in the vocabulary list.
This word is being sought out because it is suspected of being a
synonym for the word power.
17) Highlight Authority and press ENTER to cross reference all
occurrences.
18) Highlight authority and press ENTER to cross reference all
occurrences.
19) Press the TAB key once.
20) Press F2 to view cross referenced phrases. Notice the order.
Optionally, scroll using the PG UP, PG DN, HOME, or END keys.
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21) Press F3 to view cross referenced text. Left and right arrow
keys move you among cross referenced portions of text.
22) If you performed step 20 or 21, press the ESC key to get the
SYNONYMS screen back.
Ok, now that you have added cross references, you are ready to delete a
few. It is useful to be able to delete cross references if you change
your mind or if you make a mistake.
As with adding cross references, you can delete the cross references to
all occurrences of a word with just two keystrokes. But you don't have to
add or delete them all. In the following exercises you will first delete
the cross references to all occurrences of a word. Then you will add a
cross reference to one occurrence of a word. Then you will delete a cross
reference to a single occurrence of a word.
On with the next exercise,
Deleting cross references to all occurrences of a word . . .
1) Press the TAB key once to place the highlighting in the middle
column (not in the title block).
2) Highlight the word Powers, plural, initial capital letter. (Use
up and down arrow keys as needed.
3) Press the F4 key.
Notice prompt that appears a bottom left side of screen.
4) Type the letter Y (no need to press ENTER).
Notice that the word Powers disappears from the middle column.
But this is not all that has happened.
5) Press the TAB key 3 times to highlight the title block.
6) Press the F2 key.
Notice that no phrases containing the word Powers are displayed.
This is the process to delete cross references to all occurrences of a
word.
7) Press the ESC key to get the SYNONYMS screen back.
Now to cross reference a specific occurrence of a word . . .
1) Press the TAB key three times to move the highlighting to the
left column.
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2) Using the F6 key and the up and down arrow keys, highlight the
word Powers.
3) Press F2.
4) Using the up and down arrow keys, highlight any of the displayed
phrases that you choose. Make a note of the reference at the left
side of the screen.
5) Press ENTER.
It doesn't look like much happened but it did.
6) Press the ESC key to get the SYNONYMS screen back.
Notice that the word Powers is back in the middle column. But
that's not all.
7) Press the TAB key once to highlight the title block of the middle
column.
8) Press F2 and look for the reference you noted in step 4. You
might have to use the PG UP or PG DN scroll keys. There's your
phrase.
9) Press the ESC key to get the SYNONYMS screen back.
Deleting a reference to a specific occurrence of a word . . .
1) Press the F2 key.
2) Using the up and down arrow keys, highlight a phrase, any phrase.
3) Press the F4 key.
4) Type a Y.
The phrase is gone. You saw it happen.
5) Press the ESC key to get the SYNONYMS screen back.
NOTE: You've done a lot of work. Before saving it, you might want to go
back and re-cross reference all occurrences of the word Powers (not to
mention the single cross reference you just deleted) in order to be able
to complete the exercise you so thoughtfully typed in the comments column.
Whatever you decide to do about that, no doubt you will be happy to know
that when you press the ESC key twice, your work is saved on disk and you
are returned to the Main Menu.
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CREATING A SUBJECT HEADING
The procedure to create a subject heading is as follows:
1) Select option 4 from the Main Menu.
2) When the primary SUBJECTS screen appears, press the F8 key.
Notice that a blank highlighted line appears at the end of the
list of subjects. But the title is not complete yet.
3) Type in up to 60 letters and numbers to form a meaningful title.
Now the title is created and complete.
To access it, just press ENTER anytime it is highlighted,
including right now. After you access it, cross references are
created in exactly the same manner that was shown for synonyms.
You cannot delete a subject heading from the primary screen. To
delete it, access it and proceed to the secondary screen. Press
the TAB key once to highlight the heading on the 3rd line, press
F4 and type a Y. You are returned to the primary screen and the
heading is gone.
If you do not delete the heading, it is automatically saved on
disk when you return to the Main Menu.
A Timely Exercise
During a recent event, the issue addressed in this exercise became
relevant. The question arose, "Are supreme court justices appointed for
life?" What does the Constitution have to say on this matter?
Aha! You have the TCN program. It has an interactive search feature.
But to use it, you have to know what words to look for. However, the
vocabulary list provides a source of exact search words. BUT (!!!), those
lists are almost 1400 words long!
You could search the entire list of words for promising search key words.
And if you have absolutely no idea about what is in the Constitution,
that's exactly what you will have to do. BUT(!!!), if you have absolutely
no idea about what is in the Constitution, how likely does it appear that
you will be able to spot pertinent search key words or recognize the
relevant text?
To illustrate the intended point, can you answer the following question:
Is the issue of the length of terms for supreme court justices even
addressed in the Constitution? Yes or No.
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If you answered yes, in what Article of the Constitution would you expect
to find the answer? Is it in the original document? . . . the Bill of
Rights, maybe? . . . or in amendments 11 - 26?
Enough. Happily, in this case, TCNbP company will provide you with
relevant search words and leading questions. The key words are:
Behaviour,
Impeachment
Impeachments.
The questions are,
"Does the Constitution explicitly state that supreme court justices are
appointed for life?"
"Does the Constitution explicitly exempt supreme court justices from
impeachment?"
By now, you should be able to use the key words to find and index the
relevant phrases. And you should be able to use the comment editor to
type in the preceding questions and your answers to them.
And this is what the TCN program was designed to do.
What the TCN program cannot do is ask the question. To ask the question,
you must have some idea about what is in the Constitution. Having the TCN
program is no substitute for that awareness. Acquiring that awareness is
your responsibility.
This completes the provided EVALUATION EXERCISES.
CONTINUING YOUR EVALUATION
The foregoing exercises have demonstrated:
How to move around in the notebook functions of the TCN program.
How to use the interactive search and indexing functions.
However, your evaluation of the TCN program is not complete. Neither is
your study of the United States Constitution.
Continuing Evaluation of the Notebook Function
There are a few more things you can do with the notebook function.
Review of Provided On-Screen Comments
On-screen with the the US Constitution under this evaluation copy of
the TCN program are five historically significant documents that
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address rights of the human individual. These documents are
presented in 180 (or so) paragraph-sized segments in five seminars.
Along with many of these paragraphs from other rights documents,
TCNbP Company has provided comments and has indexed a few related
phrases from the US Constitution.
Now that you know how to navigate using the notebook functions of the
TCN program, review some of these provided comments. In all, TCNbP
Company provides approximately 20,000 words of comments.
Producing Your Own Comments
If you have some issue of Constitutional interpretation in mind, try
using the interactive search of the TCN program to find relevant
phrases. After searching, create a relevant heading and compile any
relevant phrases under it using the indexing features of the TCN
program. Add a few comments that come to mind.
If you don't find any related phrases, make a heading and type in
some comments under it. Mention events that raised the question you
have in mind. List search words you tried. Note whether you found
the search words you were looking for. Note why you decided any
phrases found were not related to the question.
Lexicography Functions
Then, in addition to the notebook functions covered in the evaluation
exercises, there are the lexicography functions.
Word and Clause Profiles
Main Menu options 8 and 9 provide profiles of vocabulary and sentence
complexity. Calling up the various profiles is easy enough.
Interpreting the profiles is another matter. The profiles contain
raw data. Whether you use them and how you interpret them is up to
you.
Parameter Searches
Main Menu options 6 and 7 compile lists of words or clauses that fit
user specified lexicography parameters. These functions require more
input than just a menu number. The user documentation helps.
Vocabulary Lists
Perusing the vocabulary lists available under Main Menu option 13
could prove interesting. Call up the help and browse the related
user documentation for information about each list.
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Parse Engine
You might want to try the parse engine.
This evaluation copy of the TCN program comes with 3 complete sets of
parse engine output. The provided evaluation exercises used the default
set of output. Before running the parse engine, you ought to have a look
at the other two sets.
Use Main Menu option 2 to access the other set of output, called a version
or portion.
There are no comments provided with the other portions. However, the
lexicography profiles are there. Have a look. They give one example of a
reason to use the parse engine.
Then read or print out the files USATEXT.DOC and MM10.DOC. Use help on
help to print out USATEXT.DOC. Call up help for Main Menu option 10 and
press F3 to browse MM10.DOC. While browsing it, press F7 to print it out.
To run the parse engine, prepare an ASCII file according to USATEXT.DOC.
Then refer to MM10.DOC for instructions about the parse dialogue.
Registration
Is the TCN program useful?
Sure it is.
But is it useful to you?
Possibly not.
(Embarrassed silence interrupted at intervals by sounds of throat
clearing)
No need for all that. If the TCN program does not appear to be useful to
you, simply clear it off your hard drive and pass the trial diskettes on
to someone else or format them so they can be useful to you.
But if the TCN program is useful to you and you continue to use it (either
sporadically or regularly), please register. See Main Menu option 14 for
fees and benefits.
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Continuing Your Study of the Constitution.
The evaluation exercises demonstrated the strengths of the TCN program.
Limitations of the TCN program were also demonstrated. Some of these
limitations were limitations not only of the TCN program, but limitations
also of any computer program (and any computer for that matter).
The TCN program cannot ask a question.
The TCN program cannot become concerned about its rights and neither can
the computer it runs on.
The computer it runs on cannot experience happiness, so why would it ever
pursue it?
But the individual who operates the computer CAN experience happiness.
And that person is probably actively involved in the pursuit of happiness
every waking moment.
And that person must be concerned with the possibility of undue
interference with legitimate activities involved in that pursuit.
And that person must be concerned with the legitimate limits of activity
involved in that pursuit.
And out of these concerns arise the questions about rights.
And out of these concerns arise questions about the legitimate limits of
government powers and the proper exercise thereof.
The TCN program can help you find what the Constitution has to say
regarding such questions.
If you find segments of the Constitution related to such questions, the
TCN program can help you organize what you find and store it for future
reference along with your comments about what you did or did not find.
But it is up to you to ask the question.
And it is up to you to decide whether the policies, procedures and
activities of officials are in keeping with the Constitution.
And it is important for every Citizen to ask these questions and make the
judgments.
The Constitution contains a guarantee to provide a Republican form of
government to every state. With the active participation of the private
Citizenry, this guarantee IS fulfilled. Without it, that guarantee CANNOT
be fulfilled.
And what has been said here concerning the Constitution's guarantee of a
Republican form of government is also true of every guarantee the
Constitution contains.
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For the guarantee to be fulfilled, the Citizenry must participate.
To participate, to ask relevant questions and make reasonable judgments,
each Citizen must know at least what is written in the Constitution.
Whether or not you continue to use the TCN program, please continue your
study of the Constitution.
Thank you for trying The CONSTITUTION Notebook Program.
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