<center>![retro-1157709_1280.png](https://res.cloudinary.com/hpiynhbhq/image/upload/v1512565922/scerex5zowqid7zatcl4.png)</center>
<sup>[Image Source](https://pixabay.com/en/retro-quality-ornate-tag-design-1157709/)</sup>

Quality is something I look into in every article I read. In an attempt to measure quality, this analysis evaluated the quality of English contributions by checking their spelling and grammar. 

The author understands that there are things beyond spelling and grammar, as such this is not an all-encompassing quality check, but rather a small step in that direction. 

It also aims to evaluate the effectiveness of available tools to measure quality of contributions.

## Outline

1. Scope of Analysis
2. Language Distribution
3. English Contributions
4. Spell and Grammar Checks
5. Conclusion

## 1.  Scope of Analysis

* Contributions were acquired on **Dec. 6, 2017 1259H UTC** using [steemsql](http://www.steemsql.com/) by @arcange. 
* Data extracted was from `2017-12-05 1655H UTC` to `2017-12-05  1807H UTC`.
* Only upvoted English contributions were analyzed.

## 2. Language Distribution (STEEM blockchain)

| <center>STEEM posts</center> | <center>English Growth</center> |
| -- | -- |
| ![image.png](https://res.cloudinary.com/hpiynhbhq/image/upload/v1512562453/kuxv3dz2ry9gskuzhxbo.png) | ![image.png](https://res.cloudinary.com/hpiynhbhq/image/upload/v1512562512/uzsdbys7vvtrehhkv5ig.png) |

In a [previous analysis](https://utopian.io/utopian-io/@eastmael/the-top-languages-used-in-steemit-business-intelligence-steemit), we saw the growth of posts per language. This was from the STEEM blockchain and not just utopian contributions.

As what we can see on the left chart, **more than 80%** of posts were written in English. And just last November we saw the highest number of English posts with close to **five hundred thousand (463,501)**.

## 3. English Contributions

<center>![image.png](https://res.cloudinary.com/hpiynhbhq/image/upload/v1512563572/deq8nlehvv154ysvisjq.png)</center>

Zooming into Utopian contributions on **Dec. 5,** there were **117 written in English**. These were the contributions that were subjected to spell and grammar checks.

## 4. Spell and Grammar Checks

<center>![image.png](https://res.cloudinary.com/hpiynhbhq/image/upload/v1512565873/wocloalunqvieoxd7u3x.png)</center>

In total, there were **more than forty thousand (40,935)** words used in the contributions. Out of these, there were **three thousand five hundred thirty four (3,534) misspelled words** and **nine hundred ninety one (991) grammar suggestions.**

### 4.1. Spelling Errors

<center>![image.png](https://res.cloudinary.com/hpiynhbhq/image/upload/v1512565686/dp96hdd1o3krfvbnyrgf.png)</center>

As mentioned in the introduction, one of the objectives of this analysis is to evaluate the effectiveness of available tools to measure the quality of contributions. The above chart shows the top 10 misspelled words.

We can see that **"-", "https", and "Github"** were the top 3 misspelled words. We can also see that numbers **1, 2, 0, and 3** were also considered as misspelled.

Putting this into a table:

| Word | Frequency | 
|------------|--------------------------| 
| -          | 115                      | 
| https      | 61                       | 
| GitHub     | 57                       | 
| Steemit    | 37                       | 
| 1          | 35                       | 
| 2          | 31                       | 
| 0          | 31                       | 
| 3          | 29                       | 
| Crowdin    | 29                       | 
| website    | 27                       | 

**From this data, the tool still needs a little tweaking. One tweak is to use a customized dictionary that will exclude such words.**

### 4.2. Grammar Suggestions

<center>![image.png](https://res.cloudinary.com/hpiynhbhq/image/upload/v1512565532/gb9jaih1msf2gwpkjcuk.png)</center>

This looks promising. Based on the chart above, the top grammar suggestion was - **"it is" is wordy or unneeded** with **34 suggestions.**

Putting this into a table:

| Suggestion                                   | Frequency | 
|----------------------------------------------|---------------------| 
| it is is wordy or unneeded                   | 34                  | 
| only can weaken meaning                      | 32                  | 
| just can weaken meaning                      | 23                  | 
| very is a weasel word and can weaken meaning | 18                  | 
| many is a weasel word and can weaken meaning | 17                  | 
| be used may be passive voice                 | 11                  | 
| Additional is wordy or unneeded              | 8                   | 
| So adds no meaning                           | 7                   | 
| really can weaken meaning                    | 6                   | 
| easily can weaken meaning                    | 6                   | 

## 5. Conclusion

We saw that there's an increase in the number of English posts submitted into the blockchain. With this growth may come with it the need to detect for errors such as misspells and incorrect grammar.

The comprehensibility of English posts relies both in structure and content. With the tools used in this analysis, we saw that there's still a need to tweak such tools - such as the use of a customized dictionary - to exclude certain words like as **Github** from being detected as misspelled.

For grammar, we saw that **"'it is' is wordy or unneeded"** was the top suggestion. People who read this post can consider this when they compose their next contribution.

## Tools Used

* SteemSQL by @arcange
* Node.js
* npm - [write-good](https://www.npmjs.com/package/write-good)
* npm - [spell-checker-js](https://www.npmjs.com/package/spell-checker-js)
* Microsoft Excel

***

<sup>I am part of a Steemit Business Intelligence community. We all post under the tag #bisteemit.</sup>

<sup>You can find the team behind #bisteemit on discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/JN7Yv7j</sup>

<br /><hr/><em>Posted on <a href="https://utopian.io/utopian-io/@eastmael/utopian-quality-check-is-the-quality-of-contributions-improving-steemit-business-intelligence">Utopian.io -  Rewarding Open Source Contributors</a></em><hr/>