Abstract
This chapter reviews the selection, preparation, and presentation of textual material in stylometric studies of literature. The statistical theory on which significance testing is based concerns the relationship between random samples and the populations from which they are drawn. If a fragment of text is to be chosen, it must be chosen in a very different way. Once the population is defined, the sample must be chosen. It is not difficult to choose a random sample from a text. The samples on which statistical studies of literature are based are rarely completely random samples. The use of statistics to study the distribution of successive or concomitant events does not presuppose that these events are causally independent of each other. If determinism is true, then no two events are causally independent, but the use of statistical methods does not presuppose disbelief in determinism.
Published Version
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