TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
+ It was intended to operate on fiction.
+ It's supposed to be FUN.
+ The result you get is not a reflection on your actual femininity
or maculinity.
+ Nearly everyone who uses it complains about its results. :)
+ In the statistics collected on the web site from who took the
quiz, the results are nearly 50/50. Solid flip of a coin accuracy.
Quotes about how the algorithm supposedly works:
---
In the most basic terms, the computational linguists behind the
algorithm, Koppel and Argamon, took a bunch of fiction and looked for
trends based on gender. Using complicated formulas, they determined
that male writers tended to write more about specific things like
*an* apple, *a* book, or *the* car. In contrast, female writers wrote
about connections to things like *my* apple, *your* book, or *our*
car. The nouns themselves (apple, book, car) didn't matter much but
the preceding qualifier, whether an article (a, an, the) or
possessive (my, your, our), did.
---
also:
----
...a woman author whose passage comes up with a male result is seen
by Koppel and Argamon's algorithm as having a masculine quality to
her writing because she's writing more about specific things (using
keywords like "the," "a," "some," numbers, and "it") than connections
(using keywords like "with," possessives, possessive pronouns, "for,"
and "not").
---
If you put non-fiction into the Gender Genie -- and put tech writing
into it specifically -- it should come as no surprise that the
algorithm comes up with a "male" answer. We write about things in
tech writing. We don't use personal pronouns. According to the
algoritm, tech writing is probably going to come out inherently
"male." That's just the silly algorithm. That's just a game on the
web. It is not an anti-feminist statement.
In fact its not surprising to me at all that even if a female tech
writer put fiction into the Genie that the result would come up
"male" -- In my experience our training tends to influence our
writing in all its forms. And frankly I think those of us women who
gravitated to this field in the first place probably have a tendency
to write in a more "thing" (male) way than a "connections" (female)
way no matter how we write. Tech writing rewards the nerdier
women. I don't think this is news.
Laura
very rewarded
--
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
Laura Lemay Killer of Trees lemay % lne.com lemay % gmail.com http://www.lauralemay.comhttp://blog.lauralemay.com
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or
printed documentation. Features include support for Windows Vista & 2007
Microsoft Office, team authoring, plus more. http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList
True single source, conditional content, PDF export, modular help.
Help & Manual is the most powerful authoring tool for technical
documentation. Boost your productivity! http://www.helpandmanual.com
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-
