A few of my friends posted results from this fun little website on their facebook accounts, so, of course, I had to try it. It's easy (and strangely addictive): you enter in a block of text, push a button, and the site tells you what famous author you write like.
I'm not sure what my results say about me. My first entry (my most recent blog here, excepting the link to Segullah) got me the result: Stephenie Meyer. Since I found that result extremely unsettling, I tried entering in the text from "Scapegoat or Savior," from a few weeks back. This one, more reassuringly, came back: Ursula Le Guin. Of course, the second result may be suspect, since I talk about Le Guin frequently in that particular post. And when I entered in a section from my dissertation, I got H. P. Lovecraft. All of these writers have such diverse styles that I'm forced to come to the conclusion that a) like any hasty generalization (which is all this site can do, given its limited sample), the results are probably not strictly accurate and b) maybe I don't actually write like anyone but myself. I'd like to think that!
I tried it with several samples of my writing after reading your post, then I came across these:
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http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/012502.html#012502
My experience was pretty similar--the results were pretty divergent and didn't make a lot of sense. I suppose we all just write like ourselves!
Kristine--I've read since I posted this that the author of the site is a Russian and the primary basis for comparison is vocabulary (it has nothing to do with syntax or style--which for me, is one of the defining traits of one's writing style!)
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