I hate to say it, but: I think this “I Write Like” site is giving random answers à la a Magic Eight Ball. I copied and pasted the exact same piece of writing yesterday or a day ago and got Raymond Chandler, and today I got David Foster Wallace. I mean, it’s nice to be compared to either of them (especially DFW), but I just don’t buy it now.
It isn’t really giving random answers. There are only 50 authors in the IWL database for “it” to compare writing to. The algorithm that IWL uses is comparing each sample writing to those 50 authors and giving out answers that match as close as it can. Since it is only one dude, I can’t really blame the guy for only loading in 50 authors. He has stated that he has plans to add more into the database at some point, therefore giving a more accurate answer. See this interview for more info.
