The Top Ten Requirements.

Welcome All. Members in the Top Ten must attach a minimum of one Reading Credit to their chapters for each week in order to remain in the Top Ten. The purpose of this is to get a representative amount of reviews and ratings for each book, and also to get more feedback to assist in helping to recognise strengths and what may be improved. As many members are also pointing out, the process of reviewing other members’ books also helps them to consider the writing process in relation to their own work.

Member 2548196 – James - succinctly made a point about this: ‘The feedback is helping me enormously. When more than one reader hits on the same weakness, bingo - do something. Reviewing the work of others is a lesson in itself. Somebody writes an atmospheric description and you wonder why you can't do as well yourself. Somebody else misses a plot opportunity and you realise you have done that too.’

In the early stages, we’ll be updating the chart throughout the week and putting it on automated rollover at a later point.

Note* If a member drops out of the Top Ten because they don’t have a Reading Credit attached during any given week, then the next highest rated member’s chapters with a Reading Credit attached and 5 reviews will enter the Top Ten. The 5 review rule will also be implemented into the automated process. If you regain a credit following a week you drop from the Top Ten because of not meeting the 1 Reading Credit requirement, then, should your rating be high enough, you will re-enter the Top Ten.

An Indepth Look at the Ratings System

The ratings scoring system was devised by the site's literary professionals (please see the site's 'About Us' page).The statistical process for the ratings system was advised upon by a University Statistician and takes into account different factors, including, but not limited to, reviews and ratings based on the system that the site’s professional authors have devised, a statistical analysis of results, and a consideration of the overall amount of reviews and feedback.

The statistical analysis of results involves Standard Deviation, which was advised by the Statistician at a University Consultancy as the best way to assess statistical averages. Standard Deviation has been called the "mean of the mean," (the mean being the average, and the 'mean of the mean' being the advanced average which looks more indepth at the range of scoring data). It helps to get a more representative picture of how chapters are being rated. It is best not to concentrate on the stars too much, as it is the Standard Deviation which is more the key to assessing ratings.

One example is that if the system had just pure averages, then an unrepresentative review would impact much more on your story rating, and this means that pure averages isn't the best system to assess book quality.

An example: if a book were marked out of 5 and 4 people gave it five out of five it would have a score of 20 altogether. If someone then gives it 0, then, based on pure averages alone, the book would drop to 20 out of 25. In Standard Deviation, the system assesses the range of scores in a fairer way, looking at the overall picture of representative reviews.

In the next development stage of YouWriteOn.com, members will be able to see their own rating breakdown, but not other members, aside from their reviews. This is because Standard Deviation is one of the main key factors to the ratings, and most members are looking at just one factor which involves stars, but not the one on the right of the ratings breakdown, which involves Standard Deviation and is considerably more complex mathematically, but is of the upmost importance to getting fairer averages for everyone.

The Non-Math Example

Here's an explanation of Standard Deviation which doesn't involve maths so much from an education website. I'm not sure how we'd rate the 'characters' in this piece if it were a story, but it's a good analogy:

Standard Deviation Discussion

Student: Can you explain what standard deviation means? I'm doing a project in my biology class and we have to use it and I don't understand it.

Mentor: Sure. Let me think of an example that you would be familiar with...hey, your brother is a sharpshooter for the Marines, isn't he?

Student: Yeah.

Mentor: Okay, what do you think a really good sharpshooter's target would look like? Would they get all the bullets to go into exactly the same hole?

Student: Well, no sharpshooter is perfect--you can't hold a rifle perfectly still. It's going to move at least slightly. So their shots would be close together, but not in the same spot.

Mentor: Exactly. There is going to be a little bit of what we call "random variation". One time it might be a little up and to the left, the next time just slightly right, and so on. You cannot predict the next variation, but if you look at all of the variations together you can get an idea of how skilled the shooter is with a rifle by seeing if the variation is large or small.

Student: Ok, I see.

Mentor: Good. Now, we can link this back to your original question. Standard deviation is the name for one way of looking at how tightly (or loosely) grouped a set of data is. It lets you describe the variation in a whole set of data with a single number. This can be useful in finding out how similar all the parts of a group are. For instance, if you were producing items in a factory you could tell whether or not the people, or machines, producing your product are performing well, i.e. creating products with little variation. If the standard deviation began to increase, it may indicate that a machine part is wearing out.

In the Best Sellers Chart, the last part will become more relevant, as the system will look at a wider and even more indepth range of averages to assess how a book is being assessed by its readership. The Top Ten is designed for both accessibility and assessment of writing standards/readability, e.g. many members have varying degrees of time to spend on reviewing and there has to be an accessible bar to enter the system. The Best Sellers Chart will look more at reviews and ratings over a range of time to get a more expanded viewpoint. This may, for example, lead to books that initially weren't rated as high as others showing a more consistent range of readers who review and rate the book highly. This shows a more indepth picture of how that book is being received.

In a non-mathematical nutshell, the system aims at highlighting books with widespread appeal, and also genre appeal.