Several years ago, there was a "thing" going round about our writing voices. There was even a test to take and I rated quite feminine in my speech patterns, and actually still have the list of feminine words, pasted on the side of my monitor, that women "supposedly" use. The whole shtik is that women's speech patterns are more tentative and colaborative.
I wonder if any of that makes sense now?
Gwen
Comments
Writing styles
Yeah, Gwen, it does. I have to find the article I read recently, but it said that many if not most writers have a feminine mindset. Supposedly, the "feminine" brain communicatres better. True or not, I'm gonna agree with it. That's my story, an' I'm a stickin' to it!
Wren
One Of My Friends Read My Autobiography
One of my friends read my life story once and she told me she could hear my voice in her head. She said it was totally feminine as she was reading. She told me that there was no doubt in her mind that it was written by a woman. It was like a validation of what I felt in my heart.
Deborah Tannen
A Georgetown University linguistics professor by the name of Deborah Tannen has written several books that address the difference between the way men and women communicate. 'You Just Don't Understand' is an excellent book on the subject. It is well written and quite enlightening. Any one interested in the difference between speech patterns and how conversations between men and women use the same language should look into the books she wrote on the subject.
Nancy Cole
Note: I met Deborah and had a chance to chat with her years back. She is anything but a radical feminist. She rather quite normal considering she's a professor at Georgetown.
"You may be what you resolve to be."
T.J. Jackson
Gwen, I would have to say
Gwen,
I would have to say that feminine vs masculine writing styles do exist, so yes your supposition makes definite sense. I used to get lots of comments regarding reports I wrote on various incidents that I investigated in my law enforcement days, as to why I wrote them as I did. I also seemed to be able to more fully understand my subordinate female officers more easily than my male officers, (had to generally ask them to explain what they meant) when I read their reports prior to passing them on to others. Along with that, papers and other written projects during my college days were often commented on regarding my writing style, yet I never understood why; until several years ago, when I took a writing test for a friend who was doing a gender studies program about this very issue. After the testing, I was surprised to discover that I rated really high in the female writing style. That seemed to explain what I had been experienceing all those previous years. I do believe this also explains why those who write the stories on BC-TS and other TG/TS oriented websites and those who read them seem to 'click' so easily. Our brains are apparently 'wired very similiar'. Jan
Astonishingly Male writing.
Several years ago, I took the test and it was solidly female writing.
It is disturbing to me to find that in my latest story, which I have hundreds of hours in, it is disappointingly male in style. True, it is my first excursion in to the War Story Genre, and I started it to see if I could write that way. I have finished the first chapter and the war phase and now it moves into time at home and then the romantic part. I wonder if that will affect my writing style?
Much peace
Gwen
Website to determine if your writing style is male or female.
RAMI
THe link below will take you to a website that will rate your writing as male or female.
I found it an interesting experience to take the stories I have posted here, and see how they were rated. I then played around with them, using the list of female words and male words to see if I could increase the female rating or conversely the male rating. Using such words did change the rating.
Rami
http://bookblog.net/gender/genie.php
RAMI
Let's have a go then...
The Genie: (51% Female)
Female Score: 984
Male Score: 940
Watery Grave: (53% Male)
Female Score: 14537
Male Score: 16559
Goodbye Sam: (62% Female)
Female Score: 1917
Male Score: 1151
Petra: (61% Female)
Female Score: 2787
Male Score: 1791
Petra (I Will Survive): (59% Female)
Female Score: 3462
Male Score: 2389
Petra (Lydia's Lament): (60% Female)
Female Score: 4942
Male Score: 3342
Reunion (V2): (58% Male)
Female Score: 600
Male Score: 831
Life Changing Experience: (51% Male)
Female Score: 758
Male Score: 796
-oOo-
Then again, would you really classify these words as masculine or feminine?
Feminine:
with, if, not, where, be, when, your, her, we, should, she, and, me, myself, hers, was
Masculine:
around, what, more, are, as, who, below, is, these, the, a, at, it, many, said, above
Following the links, apparently the following is what the algorithm is based on. See what you think...
There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't...
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
My Score Was Female
My score was 408 feminine and 99 masculine on Genie.