Writing style reveals gender?

B

buffys

Registered Loser
Registered Senior Member
I ran across an interesting article.

- the gist - " ... Ramat Gan ... developed a computer program that uses a simple algorithm to analyse writing style and determine the author's gender ..." The whole article is here - http://channels.netscape.com/ns/atplay/package.jsp?name=fte/writereveals/writereveals

it just seemed particularly appropriate to a forum as gender is often unknown or lied about.

... read it yet? so what do you think? I dont have a particular point with this, im just curious what kind of discussion might emerge (there are so many potential directions to go with it).


buff
 
Um, I doubt it can be entirely accurate.. and why would you care what gender the writer is?
 
the article claims 80% accuracy, as to why would i care an authors gender? I don't care, as i said im just curious what peoples thoughts were on the concept (benefits? problems? potential misuses/uses ... whatever it makes you consider).
 
I didn't mean you in particular, just asking why would someone care what gender an author is. I don't understand what benefits, problems, misuses this can cause.
 
really? it seemed interesting, to me at least and with tons of potential controversy and discussion built in (i was just going to let the thread flow and see where a discussion may focus or what thoughts might emerge.

Apparently you disagree, fair enough.

buff
 
I'm sorry I didn't actually read the article :D ; I still don't know how this can be misused though.

I don't really find it reliable despite what they say...basically because its based on stereotype. A man probably made it because he generalized on gender :p and said that men often use generalizations in their writing.
 
...basically because its based on stereotype
Click to expand...

yes, perfect example of a potential "against" argument.

I often hear thoughts on what differences (if any exist aside from plumbing) there might be between men and women. Is there fundamental differences in how the genders are wired? if so does a difference necessarily mean one is somehow more and one less or does it simply point to a "different but equal" type of thing? Does saying the genders are different beyond our physical construction necessarily demean or lessen a gender?

just a couple of the potential directions that i thought the discussion may go.
 
i was just talking to someone about this

about how females write, for example, in novels and theories.
Novels, in whatever genre, females tend to either focus more on family oriented situations if they are writing in a contemporary setting, and also big big thing is that they love writing romance, which is okay because look at Danielle Steele, she's making lots of money although it's not challenging. Its actually not meant to be since i'ts for enjoyment. And then there's women that always, and i mean always going for eroticism, like Anne Rice, etc. and the MEN, it's interesting, they write about subjects with intense atmosphere, violence, and if they write NO eroticism. I wonder if it's because girls want to express it inwardly and then refuse to give it out outwardly?

in the article, they talk about the usage of "she, he,their, myself, i , you, "for females. and i do agree to a certain degree. women are so personal. it's gotta be that deep emotional going on. i guess it's the estrogen or something. and guys use "objects' oh...i understand alright.
 
i dont agree that writing romance isn't challenging (ever tried it?) but it brings me to the "different but equal" idea. Women do write (or at least publish) much more romance than men and in a similar vein men publish much more sci-fi than women, both are essentially for entertainment purposes (escapism) but very, very different in tone. Is this a matter of wiring or is it culturally imposed?
 
lol, nope, but i think it would be fun to write one.

interesting...also in university majors, more men in architecture and engineering and women in interior designing and teaching.(mostly grade school though-you get to upper university level and it equals out. i guess men don't have patience for children)
yep, it's programming from an early age.
 
buffys

i would think that the program is written primarily for identifying
people to market to
that is the most common theme and seems to be the innitial
instigator of the research

so to assume the test is scientific would maybe be to assume the goal which is not stated
the data is gender specific identification
the reason to construct it is most likely to slant the test for what ever the orriginal purpose of the mind of the programmer

maybe

groove on :)
 
im not really concerned about why the program was created, im more interested in the possible consequences there are (if any) if it does actually have a consistent 80% accuracy rate. If you can tell a gender (reasonably consistently) simply by the way one composes a thought on paper is that a cultural, societal or a fundamental design difference in the genders' brains.

I suppose i should have been more clear starting this thread, the bottom line question i have is - are the genders different and if they are, how? (aside from whether your an "innie" or an "outie" of course)

The article also eluded to an ongoing controversy that if you say there are design differences beyond the superficial this is somehow an argument that one gender is less than another.

- from the article - "Koppel said when he submitted his research for publication to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, he was rejected "on ideological grounds." He told the Boston Globe, "They said, 'What do you mean? You're trying to make some claim about men and women being different, and we don't know if that's true. That's just the kind of thing that people are saying in order to oppress women.'"

I don't really understand that conclusion (i dont see why different would mean less) so i was hoping there may be some insight from the people in the forum.
 
:p Ok I’ve read the article and my opinion who cares and what’s new?
Men and women are different and it can only be used to oppress women if we let it. I don’t understand what the fuss is about from the article itself just seems to be yet another way of showing how different we are regardless of how we may try to hide it.
Be proud you are a women and respect the differences of men I don’t want nor need have the trials and tribulations of men and as far as how I write that was four I's three we's and lots of personally opinion hehe
It’s a good read but nothing to get worked up about
:bugeye:



____________________________________
:p "The essence of greatness is the ability to choose personal fulfillment in circumstances where others choose madness."
 
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