A known signature is a text-based authorship representation computed from writing whose author is identified. It records measurable style features, such as average words per sentence and average sentence complexity. section 11.1
Use known signatures to estimate who wrote an unidentified text:
- Create one signature from a known work by each candidate author. section 11.1
- Compute an unknown signature for the mystery work. section 11.1
- Compare the unknown signature with every known signature and choose the closest match as the authorship guess. section 11.1
Doyle, Dickens, and a mystery book
Known works by Doyle and Dickens provide signatures. A mystery book receives its own signature, and the closest of the known signatures supplies the initial guess about its author. The result can be wrong if the writer is new to the comparison set or changes style between books. section 11.1
