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.
Subject:RE: This is interesting... From:"Lauren" <lt34 -at- csus -dot- edu> To:"'Dori Green'" <dgreen -at- associatedbrands -dot- com>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 7 Jun 2007 10:35:10 -0700
I finally tried the gender genie.
Apparently I'm a boy. I tested some technical documents, an offer letter, a
short story, and homework assignments from several years ago. One English
assignment came back female, the short story was "girlish," passages less
than 500 words were sometimes female, but everything else... "boy." When I
was female, I was barely female. The documents that were male were
decidedly male with my male score in the female/male tally falling between
double and triple the female score.
My most frequently highest scoring "female" word was "not," except in the
short story where I used "with" 624 times compared to "not" at 351 times and
one technical document that came back female because I used "if" 1316 times.
The doc had code. Teehee. "If" statements are female. Those were my
highest scoring words in the female analyses.
My highest scoring male words for the short story were "the" and "a." For a
"male" homework assignment and my technical documents, my highest scoring
boy words were "are" and "the" followed by "a" and "is."
So "with," "not," and "if" are female and "are," "the," and "is" are male.
What decides a word's gender? It isn't serifs is it?
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-
