The arithmetic for one report
History has a warning for the new Democratic majority
72Moderate density of flagged expressions
What was read
712 words in the outlet's own voice, plus 9 in the headline. 5% of the text is in quotes. 1 attribution marker (such as "said" or "according to") found.
Scare quotes (a phrase of one to three words in quotation marks with no speaker in the same sentence): revolution,
, Friction-maxxing
. Since method 3.1.0 their words count as the outlet's own.
Words found
- Word choice:
fortunately
2 points Editorializing
prospects in a split government. Fortunately , amid all this jockeying and post-electionso-called
2 points Expression of doubt
more liberal lawmakers. And these so-called Watergate babies came to play: Theyarguably
1 point Editorializing
hearings, for example — also arguably made Congress a more polarized and - Raises the temperature:
totally
negated, not counted Raises the temperature
historically big — but not totally unheard-of. Midterm elections also ushered inhuge
1 point Raises the temperature
Midterm elections also ushered in huge partisan majorities in the early 1970sdramatically
1 point Raises the temperature
delivering Gingrich’s vision of a dramatically smaller government in one fell swoop,sweeping
1 point Raises the temperature
law, it required compromise: A sweeping welfare overhaul only passed after Clintonfierce
1 point Raises the temperature
only pass through compromise or fierce confrontation. Making electoral history is onerage
2 points Raises the temperature
convenience. Friction-maxxing is all the rage these days, and while I don’t
Layer scores
Rates are counted points per 1,000 words of the story's own text. For a story longer than 200 words, the rate used is the average of the whole-story rate and the rate in its densest 200-word stretch, so neutral filler cannot dilute a loaded passage away. Score = 100 × (loaded end − rate used) ÷ loaded end, kept between 0 and 100. Headline words count only in the headline layer.
| Layer | Points | Words | Whole-story rate | Densest 200 words | Rate used | Scale | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Word choice | 5 | 712 | 7.0 | 20.0 (words 151 to 350) | 13.5 | 0 to 40 | 66 |
| Temperature | 6 | 712 | 8.4 | 25.0 (words 451 to 650) | 16.7 | 0 to 40 | 58 |
| Flagged attribution phrases | 0 | 712 | 0.0 | 0.0 (words 1 to 200) | 0.0 | 0 to 20 | 100 |
| Headline wording | 0 | 25 | 0.0 | headline only | 0.0 | 0 to 240 | 100 |
Densest stretch: Word choice, words 151 to 350 of 712, with fortunately
, so-called
; Temperature, words 451 to 650 of 712, with dramatically
, sweeping
, fierce
, rage
.
Shown, not scored: the headline's rate minus the rate of the story's first 80 words is 0.0 points per 1,000 words.
Overall
Weighted geometric mean of the layers that are established, with 10 added to each layer first and taken away at the end: (Word choice 66 + 10)0.4 × (Temperature 58 + 10)0.3 × (Flagged attribution phrases 100 + 10)0.2 × (Headline wording 100 + 10)0.1 − 10 = 72. Adding 10 means one layer at 0 lowers the total steeply without collapsing it. A weak layer pulls the total down.
Lowered the score most: Word choice.
Name-swap test: with party, politician and institution names swapped, this report's score moves by 0.0 points.
What a reader could check
| People named as sources | 1 (Fox News) |
|---|---|
| Unnamed sources | 0 (0% of all sources found) |
| Links to primary records (government, court, filings, PDFs) | 0 |
| Documents cited in the text (a report, bill, ruling, filing) | 0 |
| Checkable specifics (numbers and dates) | 7 |
| Data shown (a table or chart) | yes |
| Correction or clarification noted | no |
What a reader could check, counted by published patterns. Shown beside the score, never part of it. How each count works
Checked against the official record
No vote count or bill number found in the text read.
Record of this measurement
Method 3.1.0, word-list fingerprint 807a17189402a416, read by text extractor version 4. Fingerprint of the text read: 37b5e4eb9cc30f33. Internet Archive copy nearest the time it was read. The text read was not kept (read before method 3.1.0, or from the feed only), so a later rule change can be applied only while the report is still in the outlet's feed.