As mentioned previously, PG has spent some time examining content analysis tools available online. In some cases, they’re free and others require a subscription if you want to use them for longer pieces of content.
Here’s a sample text PG has chosen for analysis:
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty dirty wet hole filled with the end of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole and that means “comfort.”
The first tool is what the creator describes as a “Sentiment Analysis“. Here is the result of the analysis:
This document is: positive (+0.50) Magnitude: 1.19
Subjectivity: subjective
negative neutral positive
. . . .
| Detected Themes | Magnitude | Sentiment Score |
|---|---|---|
| hobbit hole | 0.61 | +0.537 |
| Core sentences | Magnitude | Sentiment Score |
|---|---|---|
| In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. | 0.38 | 0.156 |
| Not a nasty dirty wet hole filled with the end of worms and an oozy smell nor yet a dry bare sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit hole and that means “comfort. | 0.81 | +0.441 |
Parts of the speech
| it was a hobbit hole | Subject: it Action: was Object: a hobbit hole (+0.537) |
Auto categories [IAB QAG taxonomy]
| Category | Score |
|---|---|
| Pets/ Pet Supplies | 0.365 |
| Home & Garden | 0.189 |
| Sports | 0.116 |
No, PG does not understand exactly how the computerized analysis was conducted. He expects it might do better with a longer text.
Link to the rest at Text2Data.com
Next, you can make a Word Cloud to help you visualize the various words of the hobbit passage. The following is from Lexos:
And, also from Lexos, additional data about the language:
| Documents | Number of character n-grams occurring once | Total number of character n-grams | Vocabulary Density | Distinct number of character n-grams |
| In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit | 11 | 245 | 0.127 | 31 |
And since content creation is never far from our minds (isn’t everybody a content creator these days?), there’s an online tool to allow you to get more mileage from your content.
Paraphrase-Online is that tool. You can take something you’ve already written on a topic, run it through the paraphrase generator and, voila, fresh content you can sell to someone else!
To refresh your recollection, here is the original language we’ve been working with:
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty dirty wet hole filled with the end of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole and that means “comfort.”
And here is your fresh hobbit content!
In a gap within the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a terrible grimy damp gap filled with the conclusion of worms and an slimy scent, nor however a dry, uncovered sandy gap with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole which implies “comfort.”
PG decided to try another text to paraphrase:
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
And the paraphrase:
When within the Course of human occasions, it gets to be vital for one individuals to break down the political bands which have associated them with another, and to expect among the powers of the soil, the separate and break even with station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a not too bad regard to the opinions of mankind requires that they ought to pronounce the causes which induce them to the partition.
Since he was on a paraphrasing roll, he tried another:
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
And another way of saying the same thing:
It could be a truth all around recognized, that a single man in ownership of a great fortune, must be in need of a spouse.
One last and longer opening paragraph:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way — in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
and the paraphrase:
It was the leading of times, it was the most noticeably awful of times, it was the age of shrewdness, it was the age of stupidity, it was the age of conviction, it was the age of distrust, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Haziness, it was the spring of trust, it was the winter of lose hope, we had everything some time recently us, we had nothing some time recently us, we were all going coordinate to Paradise, we were all going coordinate the other way — in short, the period was so distant just like the show period, that a few of its noisiest authorities demanded on its being gotten, for great or for fiendish, within the superlative degree of comparison as it were.
If you go to Paraphrase-Online.com, you may be able to reuse your own content.
The one that has me scratching my head is the willingness to use “subject” and “object,” even managing to use them correctly. “Verb,” however, is a bridge too far, so we instead get “action,” as if this were the third grade.
I never comment but this was priceless. I’m still giggling.
Why not?
Jump in. Then water’s fine.
PG doesn’t seem to mind.
So that’s where academic writing comes from.
Credit where credit is due, the paraphrase is “properly” inclusive, 2020-style:
“It could be a truth all around recognized, that a single man in ownership of a great fortune, must be in need of a spouse. ”
Still, it could be better, 2022-style:
It is an accepted consensus that any entity in ownership of even a modest debt must be in need of a spouse.
(More economically accurate as well as no longer anthropocentric.)
Laughing.
Be careful about taunting HAL – he may be writing your obituary some day.
Not nice to throw literature at tools meant, at best, for Business English as a second language students.