The arithmetic for one report
Midterm voters clearly wanted to make America nice again
88Few flagged expressions
What was read
723 words in the outlet's own voice, plus 9 in the headline. 15% of the text is in quotes, with 3 listed words inside quotes. 4 attribution markers (such as "said" or "according to") found.
Listed words inside quotes (not scored; quoting is reporting, but which quotes to use is an editorial choice): actually
, very
, very
.
Scare quotes (a phrase of one to three words in quotation marks with no speaker in the same sentence): radical love,
, very serious
. Since method 3.1.0 their words count as the outlet's own.
Words found
- In the headline:
clearly
2 points Editorializing
Midterm voters clearly wanted to make America nice again - Word choice:
of course
2 points Editorializing
can be true at once, of course — and, in this case, theydubious
2 points Expression of doubt
opponents known for their morally dubious pasts or ugly attack ads. Does - Raises the temperature:
mocks
attributed to a speaker, not counted Raises the temperature
the Trump administration also regularly mocks and humiliates its targets in socialhumiliates
attributed to a speaker, not counted Raises the temperature
administration also regularly mocks and humiliates its targets in social media posts.very
attributed to a speaker, not counted Raises the temperature
year called illegal immigration a very serious problem, 55 percent of voters
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 | 4 | 723 | 5.5 | 10.0 (words 1 to 200) | 7.8 | 0 to 40 | 81 |
| Temperature | 0 | 723 | 0.0 | 0.0 (words 1 to 200) | 0.0 | 0 to 40 | 100 |
| Flagged attribution phrases | 0 | 723 | 0.0 | 0.0 (words 1 to 200) | 0.0 | 0 to 20 | 100 |
| Headline wording | 2 | 25 | 80.0 | headline only | 80.0 | 0 to 240 | 67 |
Densest stretch: Word choice, words 1 to 200 of 723, with of course
.
Shown, not scored: the headline's rate minus the rate of the story's first 80 words is 222.2 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 81 + 10)0.4 × (Temperature 100 + 10)0.3 × (Flagged attribution phrases 100 + 10)0.2 × (Headline wording 67 + 10)0.1 − 10 = 88. 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 | 2 (President Donald Trump, Lis Smith) |
|---|---|
| Unnamed sources | 0 (0% of all sources found) |
| Links to primary records (government, court, filings, PDFs) | 1 www.copulsepoll.org |
| Documents cited in the text (a report, bill, ruling, filing) | 0 |
| Checkable specifics (numbers and dates) | 6 |
| 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: 49968b89589e982a. 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.