# Do you write like a male or female? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 19, 2007, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-write-like-a-male-or-female/404704 "2007-05-19T07:23:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2007, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-write-like-a-male-or-female/404704/1 "2007-05-19T07:23:06Z")
I can’t imagine how or why it works (the accompanyint NYTimes article is subscriber only), but for me it did: three very different samples of writing accurately pinpointed me as male. Try it [here](http://bookblog.net/gender/genie.php). ---
**Author:** ![Shamozzle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shamozzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shamozzle)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2007, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-write-like-a-male-or-female/404704/2 "2007-05-19T07:34:05Z")
[QUOTE=Rodgers01] I can’t imagine how or why it works (the accompanyint NYTimes article is subscriber only), but for me it did: three very different samples of writing accurately pinpointed me as male. Try it [here](http://bookblog.net/gender/genie.php). [/QUOTE] It correctly judged me as male: Female Score: 302 Male Score: 562 ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2007, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-write-like-a-male-or-female/404704/3 "2007-05-19T07:36:54Z")
Interesting. I submitted part of my thesis and got an overwhelmingly male score, but then I submitted part of a work of fiction and got a female score. eta: I’m female. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2007, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-write-like-a-male-or-female/404704/4 "2007-05-19T07:59:19Z")
It judged me as male (which is true) from several samples, both fiction and non-fiction (although the fiction had a higher female score). but I have to question its methodology. It seems to give the words “with”, “if”, and “not” the most weight toward a female score and “around”, “what”, “more”, and “are” get the most consideration as being “masculine keywords”. I would love to read the article explaining how this algorithm came about, but you need a login for the NY times to read it. Would anyone who has one mind posting the articles here? ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2007, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-write-like-a-male-or-female/404704/5 "2007-05-19T08:08:47Z")
I love this thing! I was writing a book with two main characters, one male, one female, and I was quite happy to see that the female sections registered as having been written by a woman, and the male sections as having been written by a man. Exactly what I wanted to accomplish. (Well, except that I never could actually get the thing finished.) [QUOTE=NYTimes] When the Israeli stylometricans, as they call themselves, study a text, they scrub it clean of everything that’s ‘‘topic specific’’ – in other words, no ‘‘gown,’’ no ‘‘princess,’’ no ‘‘keg,’’ no ‘‘bullet-resistant.’’ This is how sophisticated language analysts work these days. They ignore the obvious stuff and concentrate instead on the seemingly unobtrusive little tics that the writer and reader barely notice. The process is a little like identifying Tom Wolfe by ignoring his suits and his spats and concentrating instead on his socks, but it gets results. [/QUOTE] [link?](http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/10/magazine/10WWLN.html?ex=1179720000&en=6b0325e1b0bf03aa&ei=5070) The link may require registration, I’m not sure. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2007, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-write-like-a-male-or-female/404704/6 "2007-05-19T08:10:31Z")
Heh…I just ran some dialogue from a story of mine through. It identified a number of lines from female characters as being written by females, vice-versa for the male character lines—and for a few “subtitle” lines from a character who’s speech is being translated on the fly (and not especially well) by an AI, it couldn’t tell if it was male or female. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2007, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-write-like-a-male-or-female/404704/7 "2007-05-19T08:26:01Z")
[QUOTE=Hilarity N. Suze] [link?](http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/10/magazine/10WWLN.html?ex=1179720000&en=6b0325e1b0bf03aa&ei=5070) The link may require registration, I’m not sure. [/QUOTE] [OT] Nope, it worked for me. But how?? Can any NYT subscriber link to any article and let anyone see it…? [/OT] ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2007, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-write-like-a-male-or-female/404704/8 "2007-05-19T08:38:25Z")
Once again, my writing seems to indicate that I’m male. When I’ve used androgynous screen names, people always think I’m male. But I’m female, I swear. I GAVE BIRTH. Harrumph. ---
**Author:** ![essell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/34f0e0/32.png) [@essell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/essell)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2007, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-write-like-a-male-or-female/404704/9 "2007-05-19T08:53:21Z")
Mrs essell is famous in her online communities for being of ambiguous gender when judged on her writing. I ran through myself, my wife and a couple of close friends. It got all of us backwards. So either we’re all backwards, or there’s a cultural gap for non american writing it can’t bridge. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2007, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-write-like-a-male-or-female/404704/10 "2007-05-19T09:08:00Z")
I submitted a couple posts from here. Both came back male. The large one came out like so. Female Score: 590 Male Score: 691 By the way, this post is completely male, 28 to 0. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2007, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-write-like-a-male-or-female/404704/11 "2007-05-19T09:59:27Z")
[QUOTE=Hilarity N. Suze] I was writing a book with two main characters, one male, one female, and I was quite happy to see that the female sections registered as having been written by a woman, and the male sections as having been written by a man. [/QUOTE] Yep, that’s what I got as well. _cheers_ ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2007, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-write-like-a-male-or-female/404704/12 "2007-05-19T10:32:29Z")
[QUOTE=Lynn Bodoni] Once again, my writing seems to indicate that I’m male. When I’ve used androgynous screen names, people always think I’m male. But I’m female, I swear. I GAVE BIRTH. Harrumph. [/QUOTE] Female here, and my writing (according to the genie) is also masculine. I’ve confused heck out of airline staff in small airports like Timaru before now (“Put your bag here, sir – Oh! I’m so sorry, I don’t realise …!”) that the masculine-feminine mix-up stuff doesn’t bug me. ---
**Author:** ![pprgrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f6c823/32.png) [@pprgrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pprgrl)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2007, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-write-like-a-male-or-female/404704/13 "2007-05-19T10:54:44Z")
I submitted two examples from research papers I wrote last semester. Both came up male. Then I submitted an excerpt from a lesbian-noirish short story I wrote as a joke for a literature class. This also came up male :eek: I’m gonna go do something pink and girly now. ---
**Author:** ![Kayeby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de0a6/32.png) [@Kayeby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kayeby)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2007, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-write-like-a-male-or-female/404704/14 "2007-05-19T12:19:30Z")
I tried it on 3 separate blog entries and all of them came up male. Which surprised me, because if you read my entries it’s fairly obviously a female voice - and. From my vague recollection of the single linguistics class I took at uni, I remember that lots of hedging language (which I tend to do a lot) was a clear female giveaway. ---
**Author:** ![Idlewild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8491ac/32.png) [@Idlewild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idlewild)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2007, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-write-like-a-male-or-female/404704/15 "2007-05-19T12:28:42Z")
Blog entries -shorter text came up female, longer text came out male. Short stories -male narrator came out male, one female narrator came out female, one female narrator with a very terse stream of consciousness came out male. I’m definitely female. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2007, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-write-like-a-male-or-female/404704/16 "2007-05-19T12:52:09Z")
I’ve tried it before, both on my own writing and on excerpts from novels. It works about 50% of the time. ---
**Author:** ![ErinPuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dbc845/32.png) [@ErinPuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ErinPuff)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2007, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-write-like-a-male-or-female/404704/17 "2007-05-19T14:34:01Z")
I’m female. I copied in a few of my blog posts and got Female Score: 971 / Male Score: 673. The first page of my 2005 NaNoWriMo novel, which had a male first-person narrator, also came up female. Oops. An excerpt from the middle, with more dialogue in, came up as male, but the score was close, 912 to 971. A music history paper I wrote last year came up very male: Female Score: 1887 / Male Score: 3632. According to the analysis, it’s mainly because I said “the” a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2007, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-write-like-a-male-or-female/404704/18 "2007-05-19T14:41:58Z")
[QUOTE=Kayeby] I remember that lots of hedging language (which I tend to do a lot) was a clear female giveaway. [/QUOTE] What do you mean exactly by “hedging language”? Do you have any examples? ---
**Author:** ![DeadlyAccurate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2007, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-write-like-a-male-or-female/404704/19 "2007-05-19T14:52:30Z")
I posted the first page of my latest book. Surprisingly, it chose female correctly. I figured the violence and language would make it think male, but I guess that’s not how it determines it. I’ll have to try it on some of my other books. ---
**Author:** ![Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/c4cdca/32.png) [@Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quiddity_Glomfuster)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2007, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-write-like-a-male-or-female/404704/20 "2007-05-19T15:18:39Z")
Mine came out male, as I figured. What surprised me is that it seems to be based on the use of ‘the’ ‘is’ and ‘are’ among other words. The ‘feminine’ keywords include ‘me’ ‘myself’ and ‘she’ and almost no articles where many of the ‘masculine’ keywords are articles or words like ‘at’ and ‘to’. I’m guessing that anybody who’s done a fair number of academic essays and who tends to write in that mode will be deemed ‘masculine’ because the ‘feminine’ keywords include a lot of pronouns that don’t fit in academic writing. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-write-like-a-male-or-female/404704.md?page=2)