Monday, March 28, 2011

Do you write like a woman or like a man?

Did you ever try the Gender Genie? I have, a couple of times. The Gender Genie uses a simplified version of an algorithm developed by Moshe Koppel from Bar-Ilan University, Israel, and Shlomo Argamon from the Illinois Institute of Technology. The algorithm is supposed to predict the gender of the author.

Every time I tried it (for some reason I find it fun) the results have always been exactly what I expected - that the texts I had analyzed were written by a woman. Until I tried it with my latest story. The Gender Genie claims it was written by a man!


Not that I find this a sign that my style has changed dramatically. That's just it. I can't see any difference in how this story is written compared to others, and yet it seems that there are some differences. The Gender Genie is not infallible, of course, but its basis is an algorithm that analyzes the use of words and this algorithm perceived a change in the way I use words. I now keep thinking about what I did different this time around. Not having a clear answer is driving me nuts.

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