  Recent developments in controlled natural language editors for knowledge
engineering (KE) have given rise to expectations that they will make KE tasks
more accessible and perhaps even enable non-engineers to build knowledge bases.
This exploratory research focussed on novices and experts in knowledge
engineering during their attempts to learn a controlled natural language (CNL)
known as OWL Simplified English and use it to build a small knowledge base.
Participants' behaviours during the task were observed through eye-tracking and
screen recordings. This was an attempt at a more ambitious user study than in
previous research because we used a naturally occurring text as the source of
domain knowledge, and left them without guidance on which information to
select, or how to encode it. We have identified a number of skills
(competencies) required for this difficult task and key problems that authors
face.
