Stylometric Analyses of the Book of Mormon: A Short History
Matthew P. Roper, Paul J. Fields, G. Bruce Schaalje · Journal of Book of Mormon Studies · 2012
What value do computerized studies of author styles contribute to the polemics and irenics that seem to perpetually swirl around the Book of Mormon?In this article, authors Roper, Fields, and Schaalje take a few short steps back to take a long look at what such studies can and cannot contribute, including the latest twist, nearest shrunken centroid (NSC) classification.The authors present eight serious flaws with the NSC study and then offer the results of their recent study using extended nearest shrunken centroid (ENSC) classification, which overcomes those flaws.Long-time readers of FARMS publications and those of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute will enjoy this short history.