The arithmetic for one report
Election Day arrives after a surge in early voting, with observers keeping close watch at the polls
84Moderate density of flagged expressions
What was read
823 words in the outlet's own voice, plus 17 in the headline. 1% of the text is in quotes. 4 attribution markers (such as "said" or "according to") found.
Words found
- Word choice:
insisted
2 points Loaded word for "said"
voting machines. His administration has insisted that no armed federal officials would - Raises the temperature:
massive
1 point Raises the temperature
have been involved in a massive hunt for voters who are notextremely
1 point Raises the temperature
of noncitizens casting ballots are extremely rare . Monday's ruling followed another - Attribution phrases:
experts said
2 points Vague attribution
Election law experts said Trump’s lawsuits go beyond historic norms,
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 | 2 | 823 | 2.4 | 10.0 (words 101 to 300) | 6.2 | 0 to 40 | 84 |
| Temperature | 2 | 823 | 2.4 | 5.0 (words 1 to 200) | 3.7 | 0 to 40 | 91 |
| Flagged attribution phrases | 2 | 823 | 2.4 | 10.0 (words 551 to 750) | 6.2 | 0 to 20 | 69 |
| Headline wording | 0 | 25 | 0.0 | headline only | 0.0 | 0 to 240 | 100 |
Densest stretch: Word choice, words 101 to 300 of 823, with insisted
; Temperature, words 1 to 200 of 823, with massive
; Flagged attribution phrases, words 551 to 750 of 823, with experts said
.
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. Experimental: 1 of 1 names and figures in the headline also appear in the text read.
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 84 + 10)0.4 × (Temperature 91 + 10)0.3 × (Flagged attribution phrases 69 + 10)0.2 × (Headline wording 100 + 10)0.1 − 10 = 84. 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: Flagged attribution phrases.
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 | 0 |
|---|---|
| Unnamed sources | 0 |
| 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) | 3 |
| Data shown (a table or chart) | no |
| 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: d8ce1138277302e5. 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.