I write like.....

A curious little site I recently came across is I Write Like.....

http://iwl.me/

On this site, the procedure is pretty simple: You cut and paste a piece of writing that you've done and it analyses it, immediately telling you what famous writer your style most resembles.
It reminded me of that famous old Woody Allen gag, 'I copied love letters by James Joyce and sent them to her, lying that they were from me.....I was surprised she never asked me about all the references to Dublin.'

You should try this site, but as language teachers, we should think a little bit deeper. For example, how does their software work? Is it analysing chunks of language? Punctuation? Syntax? Is it actually possible to do this with any level of accuracy? How did they code this?
How, if you had the IT nous, would YOU code this? That's perhaps the most interesting question of all....

A recent thread on the consistently excellent Word Magazine blog offers an amusing cross-section of witty reactions, from the wildly enthused to the deeply cynical. It's worth a look.

http://wordmagazine.co.uk/content/i-write

And no, I shan't tell you which alias is mine.

Mike