I'm curious about the algorithm which predicts gender based on writing style. The Gender Genie doesn't seem too sure about my gender much of the time. Must use less lists and more personal pronouns it seems.
Sometimes it's hard to be a woman (From the g):
Given the Gender Genie's hopeless record in identifying the sex of the Guardian's women columnists, it is tempting to write it off as a piece of rubbish. But it's not quite possible to do that, for its guesses have proven accurate in 72% of cases, which may be less than the 80% claimed, but is quite impressive all the same.
Maybe it just shows that Guardian women do not conform to the stereotypical perception of the differences between male and female uses of language. Maybe it shows that this newspaper's women columnists, unlike the women columnists on other publications, are not mainly interested in personal relationships. In My Fair Lady, Professor Higgins sings with exasperation, "Why can't a woman be more like a man?" If he had only met a few of the Guardian's female writers, he might have found that a woman can be just like a man when it comes to the matters that interest her.
Mmmm the Gender Genie is quite interesting... A blog entry came out as definitely female, but when I submitted something more factual writing (prep for my presentation/interview on weds) it thought I was male...
Posted by: Rachel | 07/01/2007 at 03:43 PM