Abstract: A system and method is provided for assisting a human document annotator in recording semantic judgments about the contents of sample electronic documents. A system administrator first configures and stores a document annotation definition at a server computer, providing a precise and consistent structure for annotating documents and portions of documents. Documents intended to serve as sample documents for pattern matching against unknown documents are collected and stored at the server computer. A human annotator located at a client computer connected by a net-work to the server computer requests a display of a sample document to be annotated. A document is transmitted in an annotatable form from the server computer to the client computer. The human document annotator reviews the annotatable document, records semantic judgments about the document using interactive controls displayed with the document, and transmits a set of selected annotation values to the server computer.