# What Is Intelligent Word Recognition (IWR)? Source: PaperSurvey.io Help Center URL: https://www.papersurvey.io/help/recognition/article/intelligent-word-recognition-iwr --- Handwriting recognition works well for most responses, but certain questions have a limited set of expected answers, such as city names, course titles, or product names. Intelligent Word Recognition (IWR) takes advantage of this by matching written responses against your predefined dictionary, dramatically improving accuracy for those predictable fields. ## How IWR improves accuracy Unlike standard character-by-character recognition, IWR matches entire words against your dictionary. For example, standard recognition might read "New Yrok" due to a character-level error, but IWR matches it to "New York" from your dictionary and automatically verifies the correct answer. ## When to use IWR IWR works best for questions with: - **Limited possible answers** such as countries, states, or cities - **Repeated responses** like course names or department names - **Common misspellings** of technical terms or brand names - **Standardized formats** including ID numbers and codes ## Setting up IWR ### Step 1: Open the Accepted Answers tab 1. Go to **Surveys** in your dashboard 2. Select your survey 3. Click **Verify** in the survey menu 4. Open the **Accepted Answers** tab [Image: IWR] ### Step 2: Add verification rules 1. Click **Add Custom Rule** 2. Select the question (works with Short Text, Number, and Date questions) 3. Choose your matching method: - **Fuzzy match (similar spelling)** for handwritten text (recommended) - **Exact match** for codes and IDs that must match exactly - Number questions automatically use exact number matching [Image: IWR] ### Step 3: Enter expected values Add your dictionary entries, one per line: [Image: IWR] Example entries: ``` New York Los Angeles Chicago Houston Phoenix ``` As you type, a live preview shows how many existing unverified responses the rule will match. Click **Add** to save your rule; matching responses are verified immediately, and new responses are verified automatically as they come in. Responses accepted by a fuzzy rule are stored with the exact spelling and capitalization of your accepted answer. ## Best practices ### For text responses - Use "Fuzzy match" for flexibility - Include common variations (NY, New York, NYC) - Add common misspellings you have observed - Keep lists manageable (under 100 entries) ### For numeric responses - Use "Exact match" for exact matching - Include formats with and without separators - Add leading zeros if applicable - Consider ranges for validation ### Dictionary management - Start with a small dictionary and expand based on actual responses - Review unmatched responses regularly - Export verified responses to identify new dictionary entries - Group similar rules by question type ## How IWR works with handwriting recognition PaperSurvey uses AI-powered handwriting recognition. IWR enhances this pipeline by: 1. Processing the handwritten text through HTR first 2. Comparing results against your dictionary 3. Auto-correcting close matches 4. Flagging uncertain matches for review ## Common use cases ### Location questions ``` United States United Kingdom Canada Australia Germany ``` ### Course evaluations ``` Introduction to Psychology Calculus I Organic Chemistry World History English Literature ``` ### Product feedback ``` Model A-100 Model A-200 Model B-100 Premium Version Standard Version ``` ## Monitoring and improvement ### Review verification results - Check the Verify tab regularly - Look for patterns in unmatched responses; the Accepted Answers tab lists answers that do not match any rule and suggests similar answers that appear repeatedly, which you can accept with one click - Add frequently occurring responses to your dictionary - Enable **Strict** mode on a question to always flag answers that are not in your accepted list for manual review ### Optimize your rules - Remove rarely used entries - Combine similar variations - Adjust matching methods based on accuracy IWR significantly reduces manual verification time while maintaining data accuracy. Start with your most common responses and refine the dictionary as you collect more data. --- Need more? The complete PaperSurvey.io help center and blog is available as a single document at https://www.papersurvey.io/llms-full.txt.