Do Women Word Diffently from Men?

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I was just curious. I noticed on my other forum, there doesn't seem to be a mainstream of women authors. I myself don't know of very many. So guilty as charged. I was wondering though, can you tell if it's a girl when you read anything of there's without the knoweledge of it. Besides talking about the gender roles like periods, makeup, clothing, or boyfriends that is. For example, do you favor visual over analytical wording, or do you favor both? What comes into your mind first before typing or writing anything? What are your thoughts about this topic? Men are included in this discussion.

Men and women do type differently. In a chatroom, without hints from the nickname, I can tell the age and sex of someone based on their choice and rhythm of words.

Most men-chats I've noticed are dry, they don't use a lot of descriptive words, they mention objects in their chats, they don't hesitate to say what they think, and they get to the point quickly, and they stick to the facts. There is a lot of invisible "pushing" with their words, which is the norm in man-conversation, I think. A lot of... not macho or aggressive, but pushing to establish their opinion in the group.

Women are different. They hesitate to use a blunt word, and use a phrase for a word instead. They talk about feelings - it's stereotypical, but it's true. In a sentence, the front end of the sentence will be feelings, and then they will conclude with the object they are discussing. Sometimes, they will speak and never come to a point. If they get pushed, they normally don't fight back, and if they do, it is usually feeling-loaded attacks that prove nothing and probably wind up with pouting. I could go on to write a book about nuances.

I have been mistaken in chat for being a guy, and it does not offend me. My experience is that in order to get the equal respect in chat as the men is to have a name like a man - or genderless name - and stick to the issues like a man. Using a woman's name in chat, guys will not bother to continue chatting with women in a factual way. (edit: my experience with both male and female nicknames - without changing my style of chat - has shown me this)Talking to a woman about serious things in front of other men is considered a sign of intellectual weakness to many guys, I guess. The root idea - stupid as it is - that women are less than men, and so a man giving an equal talk to a woman makes him equal to that woman, and therefore inferior to other men. I don't make these rules, I just follow them to get into some good conversations.

It comes from the differences in brains, I guess. Men have a left-sided verbal center in their brain, the area over the ear. Women have 2 areas of verbal processing, one on the left, and a smaller one on the right. So, watching a man talk is like watching a bowling ball down an alley, and watching a woman talk is like watching a tennis match, with the ball bouncing back and forth. That is the rhythm of the message. Hope this clears things up a tad.

Well that makes some sense because I struggle to state a point without putting down an emotion or opinion. Then I realize my post is too wordy but I only speak for myself. Weird thing is I don't like to read wordy posts and I find myself doing the same thing. How ironic is that? But I speak only for myself. It's something I've struggled with for a long time espeacially in debates.

My sentences are too long because I overdosed on Douglas Adams as a kid. (male prose influence)


My posts in forums are sometimes too long because I am concerned people will misunderstand me and take offense. (...female influence?)

Yet, the content matter for my writing that is not addressed to a community is much more concise (i.e., blogs, private journals, schoolwork, ect..) Even when chatting online, where my points will only be seen by those presently involved in the conversation, I don't find it necessary to overly explain my train of thought.

I think there is a high overlap between male and female writing styles, and that there is so much variance within the writings of each gender that sex determination by style alone can be near impossible. But it just depend on the particular person who's doing the writing.

But, concerning forums, I'm mainly just on WP. So, that may not be the best place to take female writing samples, if indeed Asperger's is a condition of having an "overly male" brain. I've often been quite surprised to discover that certain writers on this forum are female; they just don't "sound like girls", at least in type.

I think that the subject matter which is dwelled on the most provides a probability indicator of gender, rather than does the grammar style.

I tend to over-use smileyes because I worry that I might come across as bitchy or pretensious.

And I admit, I don't always get too impressed when chatting with some guys, but I'm considering trying what Noelle does.

The main difference (just my observations) in the way men and women speak falls along the lines of subtle 'passive' and 'active' speech patterns. Men will use shorter, simpler declarative sentences with a firm verb and subject, while a woman will use more adverbs and adjectives. They also tend to phrase their statements more like questions than a plain statement.

Example:

a male boss might say to his employee: "I want you to take these files, print them out and give everyone ten copies by noon today." [Agressive 'active' speech]

a female boss would put it like this: "If you don't mind, can you print these files out for me and give ten copies to everyone at the meeting--which will need to be done by noon, if possible." [Passive speech, 'would you']

Now, not all female bosses are like this - my bosses sure aren't. Typically, women with 'Type A' (aggressive, outgoing) personalities will give orders the same way a man will - just tell you do do it. However, most women are taught from girlhood to 'ask' rather than 'demand,' simply because they are trying to be more tactful. Some women could care less about tact, but nevertheless, this 'careful' manner of speaking comes out sooner or later. This aggressiveness in women is often viewed by others as rude, and often these women are referred to as 'b*tches.'

Naturally, this doesn't apply to all women, of course. But the passive VS aggressive speech patterns are usually how I can tell if someone's male or female online, even if they have a unisex avatar/screen name.

It's not so much an 'overly male brain,' but the simple lack of finely-honed female social skills in a female Aspie. Men are perceived as 'logical,' 'straightforward,' and 'get-to-the-point,' and when these traits come from a woman, it's seen as odd. Female Aspies do not think like neurotypical women, so they may often sound 'male' when they are just being themselves in giving a straightforward, to-the-point (typical Aspie-like) response.

Some researchers claim to have made an algorithm that can determine a text's author's gender. There's an online version of a simpler version of it here: http://bookblog.net/gender/genie.php

Unfortunately, it claims to need over 500 words to be accurate. I don't think anyone here really makes posts that long

I write essays and input 3 of them into the link. 1 came out female and the other 2 came out male. I am female

I pasted one of my longest posts from on here into it & got:

Words: 846

(NOTE: The genie works best on texts of more than 500 words.)

Female Score: 1046
Male Score: 1086

The Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is: male!

OK so I am officially a guy!! !

Actually I agree that you can't tell I am female from most of my posts, unless they are about female issues!