This article was published on July 19, 2010

Who do you write like? I Write Like knows, and you might be surprised.


Who do you write like?  I Write Like knows, and you might be surprised.

TNW Quick Hit

I Write Like is a site that uses an algorithm tell you which author’s work your writing most resembles

Love it: Interesting idea.  Cool use of algorithms.

Hate it: Only 51 authors currently.  A language barrier might keep the site from giving more results.

Overall: 3/5

The Details

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I Write Like is a site that uses an algorithm tell you which author’s work your writing most resembles and provides one with html code for a site badge for any of the 51 authors in the database (Cory Doctorow was added yesterday on the day of his birth).

Created by Dmitry Chestnykh, a 27-year-old Russian software developer living in Montenegro, I Write Like is an extension of other offerings from his company, Coding Robots, which also provides blog-writing programs and a diary application.

The site is dead simple to use.  Simply put, “Check which famous writer you write like with this statistical analysis tool, which analyzes your word choice and writing style and compares them with those of the famous writers.”

“Any text in English will do: your latest blog post, journal entry, comment, chapter of your unfinished book, etc. For reliable results paste at least a few paragraphs (not tweets).”

Back to Cory Doctorow.  His name was added to the list of authors yesterday and after analyzing several pieces of my own writing, I realized that I write like Cory Doctorow.  Grand?  I was hoping for someone like Tolstoy, Danielle Steele, or J.K. Rowling.  I’ll take Cory Doctorow though, for now, as I return to my writing laboratory to refine my writing into something that will become commercially successful.

I Write Like is fun to use but after analyzing one’s own writing and any other writing you may want to analyze, the real value may be in the aforementioned blog-writing programs, diary application, and newsletter on writing tips.

For those subscribing to the newsletter a free download of the 1898 how-to book “A Practical Treatise on the Art of the Short Story” by Charles Raymond Barrett, is an added, nice, incentive.  For those who like to critique their own writing, the writing of others and seek tips on how to make one’s writing better, visit I Write Like and take a look around.  It is worth your time.

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