I don't know if this is already on here but I found this: http://www.hackerfactor.com/GenderGuesser.php I'm not going to say whether or not mine was right as I think gender is a load of horse pucky in the first place but it's interesting nonetheless. [edited by Wreybies] And this is what it said I was: Genre: Informal Female = 4172 Male = 4282 Difference = 110; 50.65% Verdict: Weak MALE Weak emphasis could indicate European. Or: Genre: Formal Female = 2290 Male = 2489 Difference = 199; 52.08% Verdict: Weak MALE Weak emphasis could indicate European. Well, for one thing I'm half 'murican and half Canadian, and because I wrote this from the perspective of a female character (all be it a very disturbed one) I was curious how it determined gender since it wasn't simply a predominance of male or female pronouns. Turns out men are statistically more likely to use specifiers which I do use a lot in my comedic writing, but not so much in my creepy writing. Why? Because brevity makes it more disturbing when the POV is the darkness as the darkness wouldn't stray into purple prose nor find any of it horrifying. Exciting sure, but not horrifying. Conversely, females are more likely to use more pronouns, which can be seen in books like the Hunger Games series. I personally don't use a lot of them, but that's more a stylistic choice as I find them repetitive and annoying. Mostly, I'm curious as to where they took their samples for the research from. Was it college students, facebook, or actual literature? Apparently, it thinks Dickens is female, and a number of great British writers too, so it can't simply be specifiers and pronouns. Anyway, because it doesn't say on the website how they got their algorithm and what samples they used, I'm curious what results other writers get. Please include the writing sample to go along with the results so we can hypothesize about it's methods.
I must insist that members not include the content they use for discussion in this area of the forum. Such content is only appropriate in the Workshop area for the purpose of critique and discussion.
I did this a while ago, and was VERY pleased with the result. Why? Because the snippets I included that were written from the POV of my male characters came across as definitely male. The snippets from the female POV characters came across as female. So I must be doing something right.
No. The Workshop does not function in a way that allows for such a thread. It's perfectly fine for it to stay here. It just cannot include WIP text.
I pulled a couple of pages from the middle of my manuscript and gave it a try. This is what I got. Total words: 701 Genre: Informal Female = 708 Male = 1717 Difference = 1009; 70.8% Verdict: MALE Genre: Formal Female = 899 Male = 964 Difference = 65; 51.74% Verdict: Weak MALE Weak emphasis could indicate European. I am an American female writing from the POV of a pregnant woman, so I'm going to bet this isn't all that accurate. ETA: The section I posted involved picking blackberries as well as admiring the marigolds and calendula. So I didn't even have her doing "manly" things.
Mine switches depending on what section of my writing I give it to analyze. I've tried this before and usually if my writing is bare bones I get male. If it's a little more complicated I get female but it's never significantly female. The difference is negligible so it comes out 'weak' female. Which is what tomboy? -
So I tried a section where she's hunting and got this. So she's male when admiring the flowers and weak female when killing things. Total words: 1645 Genre: Informal Female = 1126 Male = 4128 Difference = 3002; 78.56% Verdict: MALE Genre: Formal Female = 2346 Male = 2051 Difference = -295; 46.64% Verdict: Weak FEMALE Then I started playing around: Passage involving morning sickness = Weak Male Passage involving sex = Weak Male Getting Stoned = Weak Male, Weak Female
Well, since I apparently can't include the text I analyzed, it was a scene in which the anti-villain in my novel does some religious rituals, explains why she's atheistic, explains why she has to pretend to be a religious leader to avoid being murdered by her mother, the cult dictator, (who has a position in the religion similar to what Osama Bin Laden had in Islam) talks to the guy who does the Azulian (what their species is called) sacrifices, explains why he's a dirt bag and kills him, before stating that she's going to kill everyone like him (including her mother) for the good of the people.
I'm reluctant to post any of my WIP on their website**, but I tried my two short stories that won the contest here. Where the Wild Things Could Be: Genre: Formal Female = 389 Male = 283 Difference = -106; 42.11% Verdict: Weak FEMALE Weak emphasis could indicate European. Same story different section: Genre: Formal Female = 502 Male = 805 Difference = 303; 61.59% Verdict: MALE Stone Games: Genre: Formal Female = 282 Male = 266 Difference = -16; 48.54% Verdict: Weak FEMALE Weak emphasis could indicate European. Then I tried the dialogue heavy middle: Genre: Formal Female = 655 Male = 787 Difference = 132; 54.57% Verdict: Weak MALE Weak emphasis could indicate European. And the rather grisly ending: Genre: Formal Female = 304 Male = 637 Difference = 333; 67.69% Verdict: MALE I've done my forum posts before. I get consistent results like this one I got now from a post in the debate room: Genre: Informal Female = 387 Male = 921 Difference = 534; 70.41% Verdict: MALE I wished they'd develop the tool further using a larger data base. If I recall this one was criticized for the works they selected to include, which is why they have that "weak male/female if European" caveat. Edited to add, for those that don't know me, I'm female and if I think about it, Tomboy probably applies. I'm not much of a make-up, clothes, and girlie things gal. **Not that I don't trust the site but the closer I get to my finished work the less inclined I am to share any of it online anywhere except in emails and PMs.
I then entered some text from the chapter written from her fathers perspective in which he a. Learns that she wasn't murdered by her mother as a child, b. Learns that she is not part of the cult and that the cult wants her dead, and c. That she's the person behind the long string of murders targeting Avola worshipers and cult members that had been all over the news. Oh, and that from a religious perspective she was damned to the equivalent of hell no matter what because of something her mother had done to her, (it's complicated but the Christian equivalent is a combination of the sign of the beast (which is basically their version of the unpardonable sin) and demonic possession.) and that the religiously and arguably morally correct thing to do is kill her, something he really doesn't want to do because from the way he looks at it she's basically just the victim and never had a chance to be anything different than what she is. Apparently that's female formally and informally.
I tried a story... Genre: Informal Female = 3867 Male = 5161 Difference = 1294; 57.16% Verdict: Weak MALE Weak emphasis could indicate European. ...and a script for a video ad that I wrote. Genre: Informal Female = 556 Male = 539 Difference = -17; 49.22% Verdict: Weak FEMALE Weak emphasis could indicate European. Apparently I write like a boy and sell like a girl. But I am European, so I guess that's a win for our robot overlords. They do, you just have to dive into that paper they link to. (Admittedly, it says the website uses a simplified version of what's described there.) For instance:
Informal refers to blogs and forum posts. Formal refers to written stories both fiction and non-fiction. They're not very intuitive labels.
The numbers were pretty similar for the story. For the ad, it means I sell like a strong girl as opposed to a weak one - or that I'm not European. Possibly I sell like an American. Maybe I should put 'sells like an American' on my business cards...
I'd be careful, it might be misread, with an 'm' added in there. And that could be taken either way depending on one's preexisting opinion of Americans.
I tried a WIP I never finished. For informal I got "Male" but as formal, I got "Weak Female (or European)." It was both male until I included some dialogue. The POV is first person from a European man's perspective, so I guess I'm on point?
