GENDER DIFFERENCES IN WRITING STYLES

By Shaun Stanert

Is it possible to know if an author is male or female simply by reading their words?

I recently found a website with a program that is touted as capable of determining the difference between a male and female author by using algorithms.

Apparently, women use more pronouns and men use more noun specifiers.

Hmm!  Is that true?

The website has a way for guests to load anonymous copy for testing. After the copy is submitted, it is scanned and an opinion returned on whether the author is male or female.

It was fun to test it, but the algorithms are a bit confused about me.

Here's the link: http://bookblog.net/gender/genie.php