I Write Like Site Tells You Which Famous Author You Write Like

Posted on July 16, 2010

The I Write Like site provides an interesting tool that analyzes your word choice and writing style and compares it with the writings of famous authors. The site will tell you which famous writer you write like.

You just paste your text into the input box and press the blue button that says "Analyze." The site says they do not store any of your text. You need to enter enough text to give the program enough data to work with. It will tell you if the text you provide is too short.

I Write Like says, "Any English text will do: blog post, journal entry, comment, chapter of your book, etc. For reliable results paste at least a few paragraphs. Very long texts are cut before processing."

After analyzing your writing I Write Like gives you are badge you can share. We entered some of the text from this blog entry and it said we write like author Cory Doctorow.

I Write Like was created by Coding Robots. The algorithm they used is based on a Bayesian classifier, which is the same type of algorithm that is used to fight spam. Coding Robots says some ways the algorithm analyzes your writing is by considering "the number of words in sentences, the number of commas, semicolons, and whether the sentence is a direct speech or a quotation."

The Awl has an interview with Dmitry Chestnykh, the coder of the site. The database contained fifty writers as of 2010 including Stephen King, Margaret Atwood, Ernest Hemingway, Edgar Allan Poe, Chuck Palahniuk, Dan Brown, David Foster Wallace and Marh Shelley.

Coding Robots posted some of the funny feedback they have received from people using the site here.

This post was updated on 8-17-18.



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