Canonical language

Glossary

Definitions keep patterns, workflows, modules, components and evidence classes distinct.

A

Accepted design pattern: A pattern assigned a permanent DP-### identifier in this repository.Evidence term
Activity and Scenario Generation: Produce candidate learning activities, scenarios, or experiments that connect a context and intended outcome to an actionable experience.Module type (MOD-030)
ADHD: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The project-scaffolding pattern treats this only as user-supplied context and does not infer a diagnosis.Abbreviation
AI: Artificial intelligence. Source wording may use this umbrella term; editorial prose uses GenAI where generative systems are specifically meant.Abbreviation
Analyse: Detect, compare, map, interpret, or test properties of information without treating the result as an authorised decision.Module category
API: Application programming interface: a defined interface through which software systems exchange requests, data or actions.Abbreviation
Argument and Concept Analysis: Map claims, reasons, evidence, concepts, tensions, and logical relationships in an idea or text.Module type (MOD-017)
Artefact Normalisation: Convert heterogeneous artefacts into consistent formats, schemas, naming conventions, and text representations for downstream use.Module type (MOD-006)
Assign–Track–Remind–Escalate: Decompose bounded work, assign ownership, maintain current state, issue proportionate reminders, and escalate unresolved exceptions to accountable people.Workflow archetype
Associated module: A distinct module that commonly supplies an input, receives an output, shares a workflow stage, or provides governance or review around another module. Association does not imply containment or a fixed execution order.Evidence term
Assumption Identification: Surface premises, defaults, dependencies, and taken-for-granted beliefs embedded in a framing, argument, or plan.Module type (MOD-021)
Audience Analysis: Characterise intended users or readers, their goals, prior knowledge, constraints, and likely interpretation needs.Module type (MOD-015)

B

Bibliographic Metadata Management: Capture, reconcile, enrich, and maintain authoritative metadata for scholarly and other cited sources.Module type (MOD-012)
Brief–Build–Test–Release: Define an output and authority boundary, build one inspectable path, test observed behaviour and artefacts, and release only an approved, recoverable result.Workflow archetype

C

Capture–Transform–Analyse–Output: Capture an event or source, create a machine-usable representation, analyse it, and distribute a bounded record through permission and review controls.Workflow archetype
Citation Formatting: Render validated bibliographic records as in-text citations, notes, and bibliographies according to a defined style.Module type (MOD-010)
Collect–Validate–Store–Report: Collect records, validate and normalise them, persist them with provenance, and make them retrievable or reportable without losing governance state.Workflow archetype
Component: A technical, organisational, human, data or interface element primarily internal to a module.Framework concept
Consent and Access Control: Establish lawful and ethical permission to collect or use information and restrict access according to role, purpose, and sensitivity.Module type (MOD-045)
Constraint Checking: Test a proposed output or action against explicit rules, limits, eligibility conditions, dependencies, and prohibitions.Module type (MOD-020)
Conversational Interaction: Support iterative exchange in which a user supplies context, receives a response, corrects the system, and changes direction while state is retained explicitly.Module type (MOD-040)
Converse–Interpret–Act–Confirm: Use iterative dialogue to externalise and interpret reasoning, explore alternatives, and confirm consequential conclusions with an accountable person.Workflow archetype
Coordinate: Sequence work, assign responsibility, orchestrate workflows, and control dialogue or project progress.Module category
Criteria and Outcome Alignment: Map objectives, criteria, descriptors, evidence, and activities to test whether they cohere and operate at compatible levels.Module type (MOD-019)

D

Design pattern: A reusable response to a recurring problem or opportunity within a defined context.Framework concept
Dialogue and Turn Management: Control roles, turn order, memory, stopping conditions, and transitions within a structured conversation or multi-perspective exchange.Module type (MOD-036)
Document Rendering: Package structured content into a readable, accessible, and distributable document or interface representation.Module type (MOD-047)
DOI: Digital object identifier: a persistent identifier commonly assigned to scholarly and other digital objects.Abbreviation
Draft Generation: Produce a provisional text or structured artefact from a brief and evidence for subsequent expert review and revision.Module type (MOD-028)
Draft Revision: Modify an existing draft for structure, clarity, tone, coherence, or compliance while preserving intended meaning and traceable changes.Module type (MOD-009)

E

Enrich: Add metadata and bibliographic information that improve interpretation and retrieval.Module category
Evaluate: Assess output quality or longitudinal outcomes against explicit criteria.Module category

F

Feedback and Comment Generation: Generate provisional, actionable feedback statements aligned with evidence, criteria, audience, tone, and the reviewer’s intent.Module type (MOD-029)
Feedback Capture: Collect corrections, ratings, explanations, observations, or outcome reports from people affected by a workflow.Module type (MOD-041)
Frame–Align–Evaluate–Approve: Frame the intended outcome and evidence hierarchy, align a proposed artefact or decision to explicit criteria, evaluate consequences, and require accountable approval.Workflow archetype

G

GenAI: The editorial catchall for generative artificial-intelligence technologies, systems and capabilities.Editorial term
Generate: Produce provisional new text, structures, questions, feedback, or activities for review.Module category
Generate–Review–Revise–Publish: Create a provisional artefact, evaluate it against explicit criteria and evidence, revise it under human control, and release it through an accountable approval gate.Workflow archetype
Govern: Manage consent, access, privacy, retention, evidence grounding, and accountable data handling.Module category
GPT: Generative pre-trained transformer. Preserve the term when it identifies a source title, product family or transformer-model context; do not use it as a synonym for all GenAI.Abbreviation

H

HTML: HyperText Markup Language: the standard markup language used to structure web content.Abbreviation
Human intervention: Represent accountable human review, judgement, approval, correction, or escalation as an explicit workflow capability.Module category
Human Review and Approval: Require an accountable person with relevant expertise and authority to inspect, correct, interpret, approve, reject, or escalate an output or action.Module type (MOD-044)

I

IDE: Integrated development environment: software combining facilities for editing, running, testing and debugging code.Abbreviation
Information Extraction: Identify and structure specified entities, events, decisions, actions, dates, relationships, or other facts from source material.Module type (MOD-014)
Input: Capture or ingest requests, context, media, and source records into a bounded workflow.Module category
Interact: Support dialogue and capture feedback between people and a workflow or system.Module category

J

Jargon Detection: Identify terms, abbreviations, idioms, and disciplinary shorthand likely to block a defined audience’s understanding.Module type (MOD-016)

K

Keyword and Metadata Search: Find records by lexical terms, identifiers, fields, filters, and controlled metadata.Module type (MOD-023)
Knowledge Base Indexing: Create and maintain searchable representations of a bounded corpus, including chunks, metadata, links, and update state.Module type (MOD-039)

L

LLM / LLMs: Large language model / large language models. Use this term only when the specific model class matters; it is not a synonym for all GenAI.Model class

M

Media Capture: Record audio, video, screen activity, or other time-based media as a durable source artefact.Module type (MOD-002)
Metadata and Tagging: Attach consistent descriptive, administrative, or relational metadata to artefacts so they can be filtered, governed, and reused.Module type (MOD-011)
Module category: A broad functional family used to organise module types by their primary workflow responsibility.Framework concept
Module decomposition: A human-readable breakdown of a module into internal parts that can be implemented separately while preserving the module's overall input-operation-output contract.Framework concept
Module instance: Use of a canonical module at one stage of one pattern.Framework concept
Module type: A reusable capability with a bounded input-operation-output contract.Framework concept

N

Notification Delivery: Deliver a bounded message, reminder, alert, or request for action through an appropriate channel and record delivery state.Module type (MOD-049)
Notify: Deliver messages, reminders, requests, and escalation notices through controlled channels.Module category

O

Observe–Model–Predict–Intervene: Observe a bounded evidence set, model patterns or perspectives, explore implications, and require judgement before selecting an intervention.Workflow archetype
OCR: Optical character recognition: conversion of text represented in images or scanned pages into machine-readable text.Abbreviation
Outcome and Impact Monitoring: Observe whether a deployed pattern or artefact produces intended outcomes and unintended effects over time.Module type (MOD-043)
Outline and Scaffold Generation: Produce an explicit structure that decomposes a goal into ordered sections, stages, prompts, or placeholders without claiming to complete the substantive work.Module type (MOD-027)
Output: Render or publish results in usable, accessible, and distributable forms.Module category
Output Quality Evaluation: Assess whether an output meets defined standards for accuracy, completeness, relevance, coherence, fairness, and source support.Module type (MOD-042)

P

PDF: Portable Document Format: a fixed-layout document format used for distribution and print-oriented review.Abbreviation
Perspective Simulation: Apply deliberately differentiated intellectual, stakeholder, or disciplinary viewpoints as heuristic lenses for exploration and critique.Module type (MOD-022)
PESTLE: Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental analysis used to structure external drivers and uncertainties.Analysis framework
Plain-Language Explanation: Restate complex content for a specified audience without erasing necessary precision, uncertainty, or specialised meaning.Module type (MOD-008)
Project State Tracking: Maintain current and historical status for tasks, decisions, risks, deliverables, and dependencies.Module type (MOD-035)
Proposed extension: Added to make an implementation safer or evaluable but not claimed as source-authored.Evidence term

Q

QA: Quality assurance: planned checks used to determine whether an artefact or process meets defined requirements.Abbreviation
Question and Probe Generation: Generate sequenced questions that expose reasoning, assumptions, evidence, alternatives, and implications rather than merely eliciting agreement.Module type (MOD-031)

R

Recommendation and Ranking: Score and order candidate items against explicit goals, preferences, constraints, and diversity requirements.Module type (MOD-026)
Reconstructed module mapping: A workbook-derived pattern assignment showing how an existing module may operate in a reconstructed workflow without treating the assignment as source-authored.Evidence term
Record Storage: Persist source artefacts and structured records in a controlled location with identifiers, metadata, backup, and recoverability.Module type (MOD-037)
Request–Retrieve–Synthesise–Respond: Frame a request, retrieve relevant evidence, synthesise a bounded response, and expose sources and uncertainty for review.Workflow archetype
Research Gap Analysis: Compare a bounded evidence corpus to identify absences, weak connections, unresolved questions, or underdeveloped areas that may warrant research.Module type (MOD-018)
REST: Representational State Transfer: an architectural style commonly used for resource-oriented web APIs.Abbreviation
Retention and Privacy Governance: Define and enforce what information is retained, for how long, where it may reside, who may use it, and how it is deleted or archived.Module type (MOD-046)
Retrieve: Search, filter, rank, or recall stored or external information.Module category
Role and Responsibility Assignment: Assign work, decisions, review duties, and accountability to named human or system roles.Module type (MOD-033)

S

Scholarly Search: Search scholarly metadata and, where authorised, full text to find relevant works, authors, venues, and citation relationships.Module type (MOD-025)
Semantic Retrieval: Retrieve records using conceptual similarity rather than exact wording, while retaining inspectable source identities and scores.Module type (MOD-024)
Source and Record Ingestion: Bring files, records, messages, or structured data into a bounded workflow while retaining identity and provenance.Module type (MOD-003)
Source Linking and Citation Grounding: Connect statements, summaries, or extracted records to inspectable source passages and preserve the distinction between evidence and interpretation.Module type (MOD-013)
Source terminology preservation: Verbatim source content and original titles may retain AI, generative AI, Gen Ai or GPT; editorial prose follows the canonical GenAI and LLM distinction.Editorial rule
Source-manuscript pattern: An accepted pattern derived from the supplied manuscript, with source ranges recorded in its provenance metadata.Evidence term
Source-stated: Explicitly supported by source wording.Evidence term
Speech-to-Text Transcription: Convert spoken audio into machine-readable text while optionally preserving speakers, timing, and confidence information.Module type (MOD-004)
Stage: A meaningful phase within a workflow.Framework concept
STEEP: Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental and Political analysis used to structure external drivers and uncertainties.Analysis framework
Store: Persist artefacts, histories, project state, and search indexes with identity, access, and recoverability.Module category
Strongly inferred: Needed to connect source-stated operations and supported by multiple source clues.Evidence term
Summarisation: Produce a shorter representation that preserves the source’s material points, qualifications, and uncertainty for a defined purpose.Module type (MOD-007)

T

Task and Milestone Planning: Decompose goals into bounded actions, dependencies, milestones, deadlines, and review points.Module type (MOD-032)
Text Extraction and OCR: Convert document or image content into searchable text while retaining links to the originating page or region.Module type (MOD-005)
Tool option: A current manual method, conventional application, AI-assisted system or locally deployed capability that can perform or support part of a module. A tool is an implementation choice, not the module itself.Framework concept
Transform: Convert information between representations or revise its form while preserving intended meaning and provenance.Module category

U

URL: Uniform Resource Locator: the address used to locate a resource on a network.Abbreviation

V

Version and Change History: Preserve meaningful revisions, authorship, rationale, and recoverable states for evolving artefacts.Module type (MOD-038)

W

Website Publication: Build, deploy, and maintain web content at a stable address with navigation, accessibility, security, and update controls.Module type (MOD-048)
Workbook-derived pattern: An accepted pattern reconstructed from workbook records. Permanent status does not erase the evidential boundary; reconstructed narrative and workflow content remains explicitly labelled.Evidence term
Workflow: The ordered, branching, cyclical or event-driven sequence through which a pattern operates.Framework concept
Workflow archetype: A recurring high-level workflow shape used to compare patterns without claiming that every implementation has identical stages.Framework concept
Workflow Briefing and Context Definition: Capture the purpose, scope, audience, constraints, available evidence, and success conditions that bound a workflow.Module type (MOD-001)
Workflow Orchestration: Sequence modules, maintain state, route exceptions, and enforce approval gates across a multi-stage workflow.Module type (MOD-034)