I apologize. For this very basic question. When I pull up several bible verses for text comparison, what exactly does the PERCENT DIFFERENCE mean and how can I use this information?
Welcome to the forums Joseph. No need to apologize. We are all students here. See if these videos on Logos Youtube channel help. http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=logos+text+comparison&oq=logos+text+comparison&gs_l=youtube.3...22133.29997.0.30258.21.21.0.0.0.0.154.2145.13j8.21.0...0.0...1ac.1.11.youtube.X5vbHF_hdVA
It's not a basic question, it's a good question! The percentage difference is based on the number of words/marks that are different in the comparison text, as compared to the base text. Here's an example, from the ESV and 2011 NIV.
ESV: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
NIV: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Let's first assume that "ignore puncutation is turned on". To calculate the percentage difference, Logos first counts how many words are used in the ESV and NIV, (in this case, 24 in the ESV and 26 in the NIV, so a total of 50). It then adds up how many of those words are different, i.e. how many words have been subtracted, and how many have been added. In this case, when we look at the NIV, we find that 1 word has been subtracted (the word 'should'), and three have been added (the words "one" "and", and "shall").
That means 4 words out of a total of 50 are different, which is a percentage difference of 8%.
If ignore punctuation is turned off, Logos treats each punctuation mark as a word. So in this case, there would be 28 words/marks in both the ESV and the NIV. When we look at the NIV, three words/marks have been substracted (the opening double-quote, the comma after "world", and the word "should"). And three words/marks have been added (the words "one" "and", and "shall").
That means 6 words/marks out of a total of 56 are different, which is a percentage difference of 10.7%.
