On Sun, 13 May 2001 21:41:06 Ryan Sorensen wrote:
>
>What exactly makes a person's writing style distinctive?
>
>Is it distinctive phrases?
>Number of syllables?
>
Some of the older issues of "Cryptologia" discuss this issue. The indicators most
used seem to be average number of words per sentence, occurrences of particular words
such as and, of, the, use of adjectives and adverbs which is considered particularly
important as they are the most "discretionary" and hence should reflect individual
style, and the use of various other words and grammatical structures.
>And almost the inverse, how would you come up with a "generic" writing style?
>
The above comparisons are best made in reference to control samples which would
represent some sort of "norm" against which an individual is judged distinctive. To
be anonymous you would want to match the characteristics of the control sample.
>Any help is appreciated.
>Including pointers to online resources or past >discussions, if they have any
>specifics.
>
The discussions in the back issues of "Cryptologia", which cite other works, are the
only source I am familar (with though there must be others). Unfortunately only the
tables of contents of back issues seem to be available online.
Jim Windle
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