Quantifying Structure Differences in Literature Using Symbolic Diversity and Entropy Criteria

We measured entropy and symbolic diversity of texts written in English and Spanish. We included texts by Literature Nobel laureates and other famous authors. We formed four groups of texts according to the combinations of language used and the author's Literature Nobel Prize condition. Entropy, symbol diversity and symbol frequency profiles were compared for these four groups. We also built a scale sensitive to the quality of writing and evaluated its relationship with the Flesch ́s readability index for English and the Szigriszt ́s perspicuity index for Spanish. Results suggest a correlation between entropy and word diversity with quality of writing. Text genre also influences the resulting entropy and diversity of the text. Results suggest the plausibility of automated quality assessment of texts.