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anamardoll · 06-29-2011, 05:31 PM

I remember reading about a piece of software that supposedly determined writer gender very accurately. IIRC, the devil was not in the details, but rather in the pronouns -- supposedly women writers tended to use pronouns (he, she, it) slightly more than male writers did.

I'm doubtful whether that would hold true for things published today or if the machine was only accurate to older works.

The closest thing I can find is an online tool here: http://www.hackerfactor.com/GenderGuesser.php The site description pretty much admits to a 60-70% accuracy which is, I imagine well within the bounds of chance.

EDIT: And the software linked to got 70% on the test, just taking the "formal" results. So there's that.

Further research is needed, but I would guess the answer is: no.

06-29-2011, 05:31 PM	#34
anamardoll Chasing Butterflies Posts: 3,132 Karma: 5074169 Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: American Southwest Device: Uses batteries.	I remember reading about a piece of software that supposedly determined writer gender very accurately. IIRC, the devil was not in the details, but rather in the pronouns -- supposedly women writers tended to use pronouns (he, she, it) slightly more than male writers did. I'm doubtful whether that would hold true for things published today or if the machine was only accurate to older works. The closest thing I can find is an online tool here: http://www.hackerfactor.com/GenderGuesser.php The site description pretty much admits to a 60-70% accuracy which is, I imagine well within the bounds of chance. EDIT: And the software linked to got 70% on the test, just taking the "formal" results. So there's that. Further research is needed, but I would guess the answer is: no. Last edited by anamardoll; 06-29-2011 at 05:34 PM.