Document preparation with argumentation support from a deep question answering system

A computer program product for processing user input in a word processing program, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory tangible storage device having program code embodied therewith, the program code executable by a processor of a computer to perform a method, the method comprising:

• receiving, by the processor, an input text stream from a user via an input source, the input text stream comprising a first natural language statement;
• determining, by the processor, that the first natural language statement comprises a fact-based component expressed in natural language form;
• identifying, by the processor, an initial span and an alternative span of the first natural language component, based on the determining;
• engaging, by the processor, a question-answering (QA) system by providing the initial span and the alternative span of the first natural language component to the QA system, and by receiving, in response to the providing, a set of natural language results from the QA system;
• and
• evaluating, by the processor, the initial span and the alternative span of the first natural language component based on the received natural language results.

A computer system for processing user input in a word processing program, comprising:

• one or more computer devices each having one or more processors and one or more tangible storage devices;
• and
• a program embodied on at least one of the one or more storage devices, the program having a plurality of program instructions for execution by the one or more processors, the program instructions comprising instructions for:
• receiving an input text stream from a user via an input source, the input text stream comprising a first natural language statement;
• determining that the first natural language statement comprises a fact-based component expressed in natural language form;
• identifying an initial span and an alternative span of the first natural language component, based on the determining;
• engaging a question-answering (QA) system by providing the initial span and the alternative span of the first natural language component to the QA system, and by receiving, in response to the providing, a set of natural language results from the QA system;
• evaluating the initial span and the alternative span of the first natural language component based on the received natural language results;
• and
• identifying, based on the evaluating, a set of passages and keywords having associated scores corresponding to how well the set of passages and keywords support the initial span and the alternative span of the first natural language component,
• wherein the associated scores are within a specified range of scores for passages and keywords.