Computer Writing and Research Lab | University of Texas at Austin

List Randomizer

Submitted by wdmartin on November 25, 2006 - 12:17pm

I prefer to grade essays in a random order, so that people with last names near the end of the alphabet don't necessarily get graded last. I also like my list to be truly random, and I hate doing it with dice. So I wrote a neat little list randomizer using random numbers generated by random.org. The randomness comes from a computer in Dublin which records static from a radio tuned to an unused frequency and extrapolates an unpredictable stream of binary from that.

The upshot is I've made a web page where you can type in a list of names (or anything really) and have it rearranged into a random order. Here it is. I hope you find it useful. If anyone is interested, I can provide source code.

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This fascinates me. I

Submitted by SarahJett on March 21, 2007 - 12:56pm.

This fascinates me. I wonder if it could be used for creative writing. Students could write a poem in free verse and then randomize it. Actually, this could be really useful in the murder mystery class I used to teach where students use clues as the evidence they need to support their theses of who committed a fictional murder. I'm sure this could be somehow used for criminal rhetoric purposes. On an unrelated note, it would probably also be useful to serial killers. I'm going to keep thinking about the application of this tool to criminal rhetoric.

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Thanks!

Submitted by Ljones on November 28, 2006 - 11:30am.

I'm thinking of giving my students an exam next semester, and this struck me as a useful way of writing multiple choice tests or matching tests as well. It would save me the trouble of wondering if the answer key was "random" enough.

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