Extended telling

The bot delivers a multi-part telling (e.g., instructions, narrative, explanation).

Extended telling commonly appears in instruction-based dialogue.

Sequence

1. Announce scope & parts: “I’ll walk you through [topic].”
2. For each step
   • Bot utterance with core content.
   • Support moves (available on demand), e.g. repeat, paraphrase, give an example, or define any key term used.
   • Advance rule: move to the next step only on a continuer (e.g. “OK”, “next”, “go on”, “mm-hmm”, 👍).
   • Interrupt rule: if the user gives a new intent (e.g., asks “why?”, changes topic/parameters: “use method B”), pause extended telling and:
     • handle the clarification as repair within extended telling, or
     • collect new data via bot inquiry, or
     • switch to open request for a new task.
3. Closing step: recap, offer an artifact, and propose next steps.

Guidance

• Keep each bot utterance short; move detail to paraphrase and example. TODO: needs alignment with user preference.
• Provide a progress indicator and allow “skip/back/stop” at any step.

Repair Affordances

• Repeat, paraphrase, example, definition at each step.
• Allow jump-to-step and quick exit to other activities.

Metrics

• Step completion/abort rates; dwell time per step.
• Repair distribution (which steps cause trouble).