Author Archive | Melanie Renzulli

Which Famous Author Do You Write Like?

By on June 17, 2013 in Writing

So here’s a very fun tool. I Write Like analyzes “your word choice and writing style,” then compares it to the writing of famous authors. How many authors are in the IWL database? How many of the famous authors’ texts have been analyzed? I have no idea. But there was enough data to give me three different results from three different texts.

IWL Lovecraft

When comparing a block of text from this post.

IWL Doctorow

When comparing a block of text from this post. And…

IWL Vonnegut

Ah….there we go. This was the result when I entered text from this, the most popular post on my site. I honestly don’t see the similarities at all, but who am I to argue with an algorithm?

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Writing Anonymously? You May Not Stay Anonymous For Long

By on June 16, 2013 in Writing

Stylometric identification exploits the fact that we all have a ‘fingerprint’ based on our stylistic choices and idiosyncrasies with the written word.

Here is a very interesting study about how algorithms are being used to uncover anonymous authors by studying writing style. It’s fascinating — but potentially scary stuff.

In his “Concluding Thoughts,” white paper co-author Arvind Narayanan had this to say:

We’ve thrown open the doors for the study of writing-style based deanonymization that can be carried out on an Internet-wide scale, and our research demonstrates that the threat is already real. We believe that our techniques are valuable by themselves as well.

The good news for authors who would like to protect themselves against deanonymization, it appears that manually changing one’s style is enough to throw off these attacks. Developing fully automated methods to hide traces of one’s writing style remains a challenge. For now, few people are aware of the existence of these attacks and defenses; all the sensitive text that has already been anonymously written is also at risk of deanonymization.

via Is Writing Style Sufficient to Deanonymize Material Posted Online? | 33 Bits of Entropy

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New York City Travel Writer Edits Travel Guide Series for the Undead

By on June 3, 2013 in Consume

Shambling Guide to New York City

I haven’t read The Shambling Guide to New York City, Mur Lafferty‘s new science fiction/fantasy novel which was just published by Orbit Books. But given the description (below) and this Boing Boing review, I’m definitely adding it to my wish list.

A travel writer takes a job with a shady publishing company in New York, only to find that she must write a guide to the city – for the undead!

Because of the disaster that was her last job, Zoe is searching for a fresh start as a travel book editor in the tourist-centric New York City. After stumbling across a seemingly perfect position though, Zoe is blocked at every turn because of the one thing she can’t take off her resume — human.

Not to be put off by anything — especially not her blood drinking boss or death goddess coworker — Zoe delves deep into the monster world. But her job turns deadly when the careful balance between human and monsters starts to crumble — with Zoe right in the middle.

~via amazon

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