Stylometry

Stylometry is a way of figuring out who might have written a book or an article, even if the author didn't put their name on it.

Imagine if you and your friends all wrote stories about unicorns. Each of you would have your own way of describing unicorns - someone might say they're fluffy, someone else might say they're sparkly. You could use these descriptions to guess who wrote each story, because you know how each of your friends likes to write.

Stylometry works in the same way, by looking at how an author writes. Scientists study things like the words an author uses, the lengths of sentences, and the way they structure paragraphs. They can use this information to make an educated guess about who might have written a piece of writing, even if they don't know for sure.

This can be helpful in solving mysteries or figuring out if a famous writer actually wrote a manuscript that was found many years later. Knowing how someone writes can help us understand their style and get a glimpse into their thinking.